Bloody Evolution
by FirestarLeon
Summary: "Our world is divided. The old world, Vale and Vacuo, keeps its citizens in the dark how far the new world, Atlas and Mistral, have come technologically. But a revolution is stirring. No longer is this just about the human race, but of all things on Remnant. And as the power struggles continue, four girls are torn apart." A collaborative work by FirestarLeon and Shotgun Steve.
1. Prologue

A man was standing by a window on the penthouse suite of a tower. He was looking down upon the city with its white neon glow. And why wouldn't he? This was his realm. He was entitled to look down on it literally as well as metaphorically.

Those people had no idea. No clue as to what was happening. A revolution was stirring… No, a revolution had begun and they were completely blind to it. If they did know, some would argue that the revolution began years ago. They would be partially right, but the true revolution, the true fight, began now.

A news report echoed in the background.

_"Today marks the tenth anniversary of the Panchaea incident in which contaminated Neuropozyne caused severe distress and insanity among several hundred augmented individuals. Services were held throughout Atlas and Mistral today to remember those who were caught in the incident. However, marking this day has caused some people to once again be outspoken against the fate of William Taggort, the former Humanity Front leader, whose organisation was responsible for the contamination. _

_"Several people rallied outside government buildings protesting that the life sentence was too lenient and that Taggort should be put to death. Picus news however would like to take this opportunity to remind its viewers that repaying blood with blood is not justice._

_"In other news, Vale continues to recover from the Grimm attack just two weeks ago. Roman Torchwick; a local Valian terrorist suspected to be the cause of the recent breach; is still in custody, but has continued to prove uncooperative to the Atlas authorities now in charge of the Vytal festival's security."_

The man looked at his watch before turning off the television. He then made his way over to his desk and sat down. He then pressed some keys on a keyboard. This caused the television to flare up again, showing not a channel, but a video meeting with three other people represented by silhouettes.

"Gentlemen." The man greeted. "I assume everything is in place?"

_"As far as we can control it, yes."_ The middle voice spoke in a professional manner. _"Tonight would be the best time to strike."_

_"I still think this is a bad idea."_ The voice on the right spoke. His voice wasn't as professional, but far more assertive.

"_They are in the open, and if we lay this right we can blame their puppets for it- They are already hated by the public. We need to press that advantage. The more people that turn on Them, the more they will have to be cautious. That should give us more freedom to move in and attack."_ The middle voice explained calmly.

_"Or it might turn everyone's attention on us. The only reason that we have survived this long is because They had attacked us hastily; Trying to gain an advantage of their own. I don't think we should give them the same opportunity, and repeat their mistake."_ The right voice countered.

"We won't." The man at the desk interrupted. "Even if the attack fails, we won't be leaving any evidence behind. If anything, it will be more like how their attack before should have gone. And if you need any reminding, that almost crippled you regardless of mistakes."

_"You should listen to him. We have a chance to take down one of their most influential and threatening members. We would be fools not to take the opportunity. Or do you want another, seemingly planned, breach?"_ The left voice spoke for the first time, completely emotionless.

_"She is there you know. If we go through with this, then she might get caught in the crossfire. You do realize that, right?"_ The right voice began to sound desperate, almost pleading for his companions to see reason.

_"Of course. But we have to do this. If we let personal stakes get in the way, then we will loose and she won't have a future anyway."_ The left voice spoke harshly. _"You really think I don't care, but the truth is the opposite. I will do whatever I must. She may hate me for this, but one day she will thank me."_

_"Well I think we can both agree you're no stranger to being hated, that's for sure." _The right voice jabbed, though failed to obtain any kind of reaction.

_He acts though he's some sort saint. _The man at the desk thought; a small smile forming at the corner of his lips as he shook his head at the visionary's hypocrisy.

The right voice turned his attention to the middle voice, trying a different approach to sway his allies._"_

_And what about you?_ _Are you really prepared to risk your friend and everything we have accomplished on one rash attack? On a hunch?"_

A brief moment of silence fell upon the room before the middle voice answered.

_"...I am. I must, and will, do whatever is best for Remnant. That is my duty as a Huntsman."_ He paused. His professional tone lightened, and one of hurt took its place. _"Though I still can't believe it. After all this time… I thought I knew them. I thought he was trusting me on something bigger..."_

_"Maybe you still _do_."_ The right voice softened. _"There's no guarantee the information is accurate, at least not to that extent. We don't know for absolute certainty if they are truly involved. They may not even realize it and are just pawns to_ _Them__._"

"I do hope you don'y doubt my sources." The man at the desk interrupted. "I swear, you think too independently- you always have. But the only way we can win this war is if we work together. If we trust each other."

_"I find it quite patronizing how you can talk of trust. If you truly feel that way, then why do you act so secretive?"_ The right voice stung back. _"I would be willing to trust this source more if I knew who they were. Frankly I'm tired of playing this shadow game; I've been playing it for so long I can't remember what just running a normal company was like!"_

"Then you would know by now if I were to tell you the source, then they could be put in danger. It's not that I don't trust you, really, but we need to take every security measure possible."

_"And so we're supposed to just believe everything you say? Just on principle?"_

_"This time, yes."_ The middle voice re-entered the conversation. His formal tone returning in full force as well. _"I believe the sources. The things I have seen… They weren't the actions of the person I once knew. I trust him, and I suggest you do too."_

Seeing he couldn't win, the right voice gave a loud sigh. _"Fine. But I want nothing to do with this when it backfires, and it will backfire."_

"You worry too much. The balance of power has shifted, and _They_ aren't in control anymore." The man at the desk spoke calmly and with confidence. "Besides, we've needed this opportunity to also test our new weapon."

_"You... You don't mean, that?"_ The right voice asked surprised. _"Surely it can't be ready yet."_

_"It is."_ The middle voice confirmed. _"I received the prototypes last week and all our testing has proven it successful. And..." _The shadow turned his attention to the left figure. _"I assume you will continue to provide us with the raw material if the field test is successful?"_

_"Of course."_ The left voice responded unusually fast. _"It may seem a lot, but compared to production it simply falls through the cracks. You'll have plenty for an army if you wanted."_

"And thanks to the modifications I have to make beforehand, it is completely untraceable to its source. None of us can be implicated." The man added, proud of his part. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have matters to attend to. As I'm sure the rest of you do as well."

With that the meeting ended and the right and middle images faded. However the left one lingered on.

"Something else to say?" The man asked curiously.

"_Only that you're playing a very dangerous game. It's only a matter of time until they realize who we really are and what we are really doing."_ The last voice stated bluntly.

"Which is exactly why we need to move quickly before they _do_ realize."

_"I understand that, but our ally there is not easily replaced. Are you willing to risk such a valuable asset?"_

"I wouldn't worry yourself. I made sure she knows of the plan. She'll stay out well out of their way." The man said with usual confidence.

_"Well she was supposed to stay out of the way last time, but she didn't."_

"That was different. The plan had changed; everything went wrong. In fact, she's doing a remarkable job at damage control and adjustment. And overall, who else is more qualified then someone with the initiative to steal a season?"

The voice made a disapproving noise. "_Are you absolutely sure her risks haven't compromised her?"_

"Quite the opposite in fact." The man reassured. _"She has been very successful in helping our 'friends' undermine Their authority."_

The voice was silent for several moments, as if it was measuring its options.

_"I'll trust your judgement. You've known her longer than me. But what if she is compromised? What happens then?"_

"Then we'll have to act quickly. Like you said, she is a valuable ally. And like you, she has a large role to play in the new order. In the meantime, increase your security. Some of our pets are getting concerned that you're acting too reserved."

_"Hmph. Give me an expendable target and I'll hit it. That should put them in their place."_ The voice said coldly.

"No. Right now they are confident that their 'new allies' are just what they needed to continue their movement. A large scale attack will put that at risk and she will have no control."

_"Are you saying they're better in the tent pissing out then out the tent pissing in?"_

The man let slip a slight laugh at the voice's surprisingly accurate allusion.

"Just, increase your defenses. The general should be more than willing to provide some security with the new Dust you gave him. Good day now."

With that the man cut the connection. He stood up and looked out the window over his domain again.

_Yes, the true fight begins now. For the Titans failed to take Olympus from the Gods and were punished. But we won't fail. We will dethrone these old Gods and take their throne for ourselves. And then, we will be the Gods ruling the world, shaping it as we see fit. __This, is only the beginning. And nothing will stop us._

_Nothing._

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

"That was total fluke! You won by pure luck, and by me trying to teach you the game!" Weiss raised her voice, clearly agitated.

"I thought you said this game was, 'the ultimate test of a person's cunning'? I just moved around guys randomly." Yang said, still trying to work out how exactly she won. And frankly, she was still attempting to understand how to play in the first place.

Ruby lifted her head from her arms, rubbing away the sleep from her eyes, and giving a loud yawn that ended with her lips smacking. She looked over to her right, blinking several times as her eyes readjusted to the afternoon light coming in from the library's windows.

When she could see fully again, Ruby saw that Yang was sitting next to her; looking down inquisitively at a chess board. She held her chin in her left hand, and with the other she was taking her pieces back in time, move by move, as she tried to figure out how exactly she had won. Meanwhile, across from Yang, sat a very flustered Weiss. She was fidgeting her arms around, with parts of her hair comically springing up in places. And of course, Weiss was also starting to give Yang the crazy eye treatment.

Yup, Yang has definitely broken her for good this time.

"Oh no. You are not getting away with that routine again!" Weiss then began attempting to do a bad impersonation of Yang, trying to deepen her voice a bit as she started to mock.

"'Oh, I just don't know what happened. I just happened to power through a game of Chess and beat one of its longest playing players is all. Stop the presses everyone! Haven't you heard? I beat Weiss at a game she's played for years that she'll boast how masterful she is at it!'"

Ruby couldn't help letting out a small snort and a brief giggle at the silly routine. After Yang had gotten that terrible cold a few days back, and her voice dropped about three octaves, both she and Weiss have been teasing her by doing bad impressions of how she sounded then. Ruby also just found it humorous how badly Weiss seemed to always take the loss of simple games.

Yang looked back at Weiss with slightly burning cheeks and a glare that could rival the likes of Blake's. She was also about to say something back, probably something rude and vulgar, but instead she stopped herself. Ruby noticed then that her expression had suddenly turned playful, and she could see the metaphorical light bulb light up above Yang's head as she retaliated full force.

"So Weiss, are your trying to say that story is coming," She paused for dramatic effect; Ruby and Weiss holding their breath as they waited for that moment of excruciating agony as she started to say it. "Hot off the _Chesses_?" Yang finished with a wide open smirk.

Everyone; even Blake as she was coming over to sit across from Ruby; groaned as if they were all in excruciating physical pain. Yang then decidedly stood up from her seat, standing tall as she called out:

"Ha ha! I've struck again! Let the freedom of the _Chess_ proclaim that I, Yang, have won the day again!"

Like before, the group groaned in sheer pain at another one of Yang's little "quirks". Weiss had even slammed her head against the table and was attempting to cover her ears.

"Please. Stop." She pleaded pathetically.

Yang looked down at her, crossing her arms as a sly and cocky grin grew across her face.

"What's the matter? You want a little _Chess_ conversation?"

Again, more groans of pain.

"You are most definitely, the worst. No competition." Weiss moaned as she tried harder to cover her ears with both of her arms.

Ruby couldn't take it any more. She desperately tried to change the subject from the latest punslought by turning to Blake and trying to get a different conversation rolling.

"So, Blake. How was the one on one exam? You think you did well?"

Blake shrugged as she opened up her notebook to a page full of sketched-in maps and addresses. Some of which were crossed out, while others had comments by them such as: 'Why here?', 'Sighting here', 'Dead end', 'White Fang?', 'Torchwick wanted this… why?'. And of course, the most recent addition was an area in town sketched out and titled, 'Grimm Breach'.

"It was fine." Blake started to say, not noticing the others' worried glances at her notes. "The actual test was easy. The only thing that will trip you up is the timed, no notes lab; Where your experiment is picked by Mr. Peach himself."

Still not noticing the others looks, Blake took out a pencil she had placed in the wire binding of her notebook and scratched off an address from a small list on a different page. She then placed the pencil back in the binding and- to the others' relief- closed her notebook. Blake also surprised the group by letting free a yawn as she stretched her back against her chair.

"You have no idea how much I'd like to get to some sleep right now." Blake said, covering her mouth as her yawn subsided.

"Well, we're just glad you're sleeping again. We all thought for awhile you were back to you're no rest policy."

Blake raised a brow at Ruby as she leaned forward on the table and rested her head on her folded arms.

"I've just been up late studying." She elaborated. "Every single one of my classes has been having a test of some sort."

Yang stopped putting away Chess pieces into a compartment under the game board. She looked over at Blake, brows raised as she asked with confusion, "So wait, it's not just me? That's been happening to you guys too?"

Blake sat up straight again, and nodded in unison with Ruby.

"Yup."

"Yeah." They both said at the same time.

"I knew it." Yang complained. "I should have seen the signs."

Both Ruby and Blake exchanged glances before looking back at Yang. Ruby tilting her head as she asked,

"Uh, what are you talking about?"

Yang leaned back into her chair, stretching her arms in different ways and making them pop as she explained herself.

"Think about it like this: Even after that Grimm breach two weeks ago, they gave us a new huntsman to shadow and let all first years continue on with their missions. Doesn't it make sense that during our missions, all our teachers would have been preparing new semester tests for us? I mean, that's probably the reason why even after the attack they let everyone go back to shadowing. It's an academic conspiracy!"

Ruby's gaze traveled from Yang to Blake, with the latter only blinking twice initially in response. Not a moment later, Blake started reaching for her backpack on the floor, digging around with one hand for her book while she debated with Yang on her conspiracy.

"Not necessarily." She started. "Some of them teach other year students and could have been working with them, and others could have gone off on missions of their own. Keep in mind that many of the hunters assigned to be shadowed were from Beacon's faculty anyway."

Yang shrugged, then moved to rest her head in her right hand.

"The point is I should have seen it coming. Then I could have dedicated some free time to cramming on subjects." She ended with a sigh.

Blake had opened her book to a page she bookmarked with a spare ribbon, giving Ruby the opportunity to jump into the conversation with Yang.

"And how exactly were you going to get more free time? We've been using every free day we have going into Vale."

Yang suddenly scooted her chair closer to Ruby, then proceeded to put her arm around her sister's shoulder. She gave wink and pointed her thumb at herself as proclaimed, "Oh please. I'm great at multitasking!"

Ruby's skeptic face said otherwise.

"Uh, no it isn't. In fact, you're terrible at multitasking. Probably the worst I've ever known." She smiled.

"I second that." Blake added with little emotion; becoming completely engrossed in her book about a disfigured opera singer desperately fighting for the love of a stage actress.

"What!" Yang proclaimed. She tightened her hold on her sister, closing Ruby in into a headlock that she couldn't escape from.

"Hey!" Ruby cried out in surprise. "Let go of me!"

"You're supposed to back up your sister, remember?" Yang fake growled in outrage through gritted teeth as she began to give Ruby a noogie. Meanwhile, the crimson cloaked girl only laugh and begged like a child as she struggled to free herself from her sibling's grasp. Blake didn't even glance up from her book while this was happening. She was used to the two's shenanigans by now.

"By the way, I'm thinking we should take this Saturday off from White Fang investigating. It's been a long few days, and not much has happened since Torchwick was captured. And we could use some time to ourselves." Blake nonchalantly announced as she turned a page in her book.

"Ow! Sounds good- STOP IT YANG! I'm warning you!" Ruby yelled out a little too loudly, attracting a glare from Beacon's librarian as she passed by the group's table from behind Blake and Weiss. The hooded teen was growing tired of being the butt of Yang's humor now. The blonde however, only laughed at the threat.

Yang turned, with Ruby still in her hold, to the abnormally quiet Weiss.

"Do you hear that, Ice Queen? She's warning-"

Suddenly Yang stopped, and Ruby stopped struggling in her arms. The former released her sister from her hold, and the latter just slowly sat up straight again. Everything had become enveloped in a eerie silence. The tonal shift at the table was so abrupt, it was even able to break Blake away from her immersion. She first felt her left Faunus ear twitch under her bow, and when she briefly lifted her eyes up from her book, she could see both Ruby and Yang staring at the seat to the left of her- with eyes wide and mouths slightly ajar.

When the rouge slowly turned her head, following her teammates' eyes, she found herself in a similar position. The three teens had been so roped up in their own conversation, they had failed to notice what had happened to their dear "Ice Queen".

Weiss was just sitting there, staring off into some unseeable space beyond Yang. She just sat there, slightly hunched over in her chair, with her arms limp at her sides. Her mouth was wide open, completely slack.

Though it was her eyes that had caught her three friends in their complete stupor. They were… glowing. One could still see Weiss's light blue eye colors, but in them were tiny bright lines racing around like fish in a pond. Her pupils were also strange; as they were rapidly changing in size and flashing between a golden glow, and a bright red.

"W-Weiss?" Yang mumbled, frozen in place by the strange and frightful sight, and unable to say anything any louder.

"Weiss!" Ruby nearly screamed at her partner, causing others in the library to turn in the group's direction.

That seemed to do the trick. Weiss's strange symptoms vanished with a literal blink of an eye, and she jumped in in her seat. She then began to hiss in pain through gritted teeth, as she clenched her head with both hands.

"...What," Blake started in. "Was that?"

Weiss opened up her eyes, blinking several times as she slowly panned her sight to each of her friends. They all looked worried. They all looked scared…

"I…"

Weiss didn't go on. She just abruptly stood up, grabbed her bag off the floor, and began sprinting away. Both Yang and Blake had only managed to get out of their seats in response before Ruby had already bolted out in front of Weiss and cut her off from the exit.

"Weiss, what was that about? Are you okay?" Ruby started as her hands reached for the Mage's own.

Though in a flash, Ruby suddenly felt air rush around her and felt the impact of slamming into a nearby bookcase, nearly knocking it over upon impact. She was enveloped in black gravity glyph, unable to move as she looked at Weiss with a new kind of shock and confusion.

Weiss just looked back at her. Her look was a combination of sincere sadness and pure anger, as she held out her hand to maintain the glyph. Blake and Yang tried come up from behind and stop Weiss, but with one look in their direction and with her other hand being raised, they were forced to stop by the same attack. Blake was forced down on one knee, while Yang was strong enough to stay standing and was slowly forcing her way out of the glyph through sheer will and a building anger. Others from the library were also starting to get up and watch the events transpire, probably expecting this to turn into another fight like the legendary lunch war.

Weiss gave one last look to Ruby- a strange and terrifying look as her eyes momentarily glowed with a golden hue.

"For once, just don't ask. Don't talk. And do _not_ follow."

And that was it. Weiss broke off from Ruby, and walked away out of the library. As soon as she was out of Ruby's line of sight, Ruby could feel the semblance fade and release her. She fell to the ground on her hands and knees.

"Are you alright?" Yang asked worriedly, immediately rushing to her sister's side with Blake in tow; The two teens helping their young leader back on her feet.

"Yeah." Ruby said, rubbing the back of her head as she went back and forth between her teammates. "She didn't hurt me. She only used enough aura to hold me in place."

Ruby then grabbed her sister's arm before she could give chase, quickly adding in, "Just let her go. Something's up, but she wanted to be left alone. She'll come back."

Blake grabbed hold of Yang's shoulder, getting both the rage filled blonde and Ruby's attention.

"But why on Remnant would she do that?"

All three girls looked over to the entrance into the library, ignoring some stares and quiet gossiping from some of the other students that had been watching. The library's doors were now closed, and Weiss was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

_"Hello. Welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?"_

Weiss did not acknowledge the holographic projection as she ordered out with little emotion.

"Atlas authority override number one-one-seven. Take me up to private conference. Now."

The normally friendly and cheery AI took on an expression of surprise, before altogether abandoning its normal persona and answering in a dull robotic tone.

_"Affirmative Mam. Please stand by…"_

The hologram disappeared, and Weiss walked over to a elevator usually restricted to all. It didn't move slow by any means; However to Weiss it felt like eternity. She was almost tempted to hack into the the control panel to make it go faster, considering the nature of her visit.

After almost an entire year of neglecting her added advantage over any of the pure students, it was almost jarring having all of these opportunities and numbers and symbols popping back up in her vision. The worst being a tie between a local map showing every agonizing second it was taking as she rode the elevator upwards, and her video playback systems replaying her actions in the library as they booted up again.

She felt horrible about what she did. But she couldn't have the others asking questions or following her. Both in terms of the sudden system boot-up by the message she received, and that this conversation she was about to have that could have her arrested for life by the Valian government.

Finally the elevator did stop, and doors opened to reveal a rather dusty and underutilized conference room. At the end of the table, opposite of where the elevator opened up, was a rather large screen that had turned on upon the heiress entering into the room.

"Contact the Atlas CCT. Make a call to the head office of the Schnee Dust Company. Bypass security and administration."

The screen began glowing brighter at Weiss's command. On screen text appeared. _Acknowledged_, it said. A low hum began echoing through the empty room as the call went through.

And then it happened. A figure hiding in shadows and a distorted voice- a safety measure his system creates to protect his identity whenever he sends or receives a call from an unknown or untrusted contact- appeared before Weiss.

_"Whoever you are, you would be wise to hang up before I trace this call and have you-"_

He stopped as his screen came through, showing Weiss standing at the head of the conference table. She gave him a scowl for his troubles.

_"...Sweetheart. What a surprise. I so rarely get a call from you anymore."_ He said in a more calm tone. Though now it was more borderline bored. Expect even?

"Father." Weiss gave a small curtsy out of habit before she jumped straight into her first accusation. "Did you have someone install a multipurpose traceroute and receiver into my Nerural Hub before I left to Vale?"

Mr. Schnee did not answer her directly. However as his shadow shifted subtly, he more or less confirmed it for Weiss.

_"Are you here about the message?"_ The company man wasted no time in addressing. Even adding, _"Be specific darling. I have a meeting with your sister in a few minutes to discuss new security measures. So if you'd like to make a point, make it now or hang up the line."_

God she hated it whenever he called her, "darling". But Weiss wasn't about to be thrown off by that. There were lives at stake if this strange and unwanted message from her father was to be believed.

"I am. You found it was so important that you had to use my our personal communication system, breaking any number of laws in doing so. Now, what exactly did you mean by 'lay low tonight'?"

Again, her father did not answer her at first. He instead gave a long, unreadable stare at Weiss. Most likely he was choosing his words carefully. He'd always been like that as long as Weiss could remember. Quiet as he chose his words to the finest degree.

_"Well it seems if anything, that school has at least taught you how to be brave. Even if it means raising your voice at your betters."_

His words almost cut as deep as a blade. Weiss couldn't help but feel small now; the confidence all but evaporating.

_"To be honest, I thought my message was very clear and to the point. However, if you are in need of a simplification, it means that you better not be in the way or interfere with the forces that are about to tear your little school apart in a few hours."_


	2. Chapter 1

_**Deus Ex: Bloody Evolution**_

**Chapter 1: Calm Before Calamity**

* * *

Weiss left the CCT, her mind racing. She hadn't got any clear answers from her father, but that was to be expected. He was as clear as muddy water and about as volatile as the Dust that he mined when provoked.

From what little she had learned, it was clear that something powerful had turned its gaze onto Beacon; something so powerful that her father had decided to warn her about it. SDC was one of the most powerful corporations on Remnant. They were even close to governments in terms of economic influence. And yet, her father seemed… uneasy. What had he managed to get involved in?

Whatever it was, it would end in blood, of that Weiss was certain. She had to warn the others. But how could she even face them?

She was the heiress to an international company. She was enhanced to survive in a world of corporate warfare- a computer centric world. No, she was enhanced to thrive. And yet, it was a lonely life; so lonely that her enhancements, her connection to the outside world, became a lifeline for her sanity. So when she first came to Beacon, she felt… disconnected. Her non-vital augmentations were turned off because of the fear Vale held for the new technology. But for Weiss, the comfort of her childhood was taken away. Throughout the year, she saw the world through different eyes. Without any handicaps to her aura. That was the reason she was so accepting off Blake's past. Not because of the bond the team shared (as much as she wished it was).

No. She genuinely thought a lot about the whole thing and realized something important, something right in front of her. People like her, the augmented, were exactly the same as the Faunus in this distant land. She had seen it first hand, how the augmented were treated as outcasts the same way as the Faunus. She had spent her whole life hating the Faunus for what they had done to her family. But if this is the oppression, if only somewhat of a taste of what they lived with, is it really a surprise they fought back? Did it make her a hypocrite? Scolding those who couldn't fit into society when she didn't belong any more than they did?

She also realized how alike Blake and herself were. Both were living a lie, hiding who they really were out of fear.

_And now you've both ran. _She thought to herself.

A voice in Weiss's head reminded her of the real issue. Keeping these secrets… wasn't it all a betrayal? Her team trusted her and she lied to them. And to make matters worse, she attacked them. Blake didn't, and wouldn't have done that. Weiss had promised Ruby she would be the best teammate she could be, and she slammed her into a wall. That was what hurt the most. Not the physical pain of her augmentations rebooting, but the emotional pain caused by the look of hurt in Ruby's eyes.

How could she explain herself? Would she be given the chance? Yang might have something to say about that. The fiery blond was fiercely protective of her sister, even more so then her hair. There was a time when Yang's ferocity felt comforting, but now it terrified Weiss. Would she be on the receiving end when she returned?

She couldn't say she wouldn't be. But she had to try. This was bigger than her.

By this time she had arrived in Beacon grounds. The sun had long since set, leaving the academy living up to its namesake- a beacon in the dark. Weiss couldn't help but notice the atmosphere. It was… heavy. Looking around, she saw Atlas soldiers that had been stationed here running around in a large hurry.

"What's happening?" Weiss asked a passing soldier.

The soldier stopped and turned to her. "There's been an attack on the far side of Vale. I recommend you return to your room. We'll handle this." He then turned away and continued running.

"Hey, wait!" Weiss shouted after him to no avail.

This wasn't good. It had all the makings of a distraction. She needed to move fast. She quickened her pace, heading to her room to warn her teammates.

* * *

Weiss arrived in their dorm's corridor. The urgency of her movements had once again slowed and were suddenly replaced by the same uncertainty she felt when first exiting the CCT. But she wasn't going to let that stop her. She couldn't. Taking a deep breath, Weiss walked the last few paces to her room. The door into the dorm was slightly agar, and when peaking in Weiss couldn't see anyone in the common area.

Weiss gently slipped through the door and closed it as silently as she could. But as she was about to open the door into the bedroom, she thought she heard voices. Briefly activating her smart vision, she could see seven people in the room. She recognized the extra shapes as team JNPR. Hesitating, she lowered her hand from the door and tuned her ears to listen to what was being said.

"…So, yeah. You guys don't have _any_ idea what happened?" Jaune questioned. He was sitting backwards in their desk chair. Pyrrha was standing next to him, while Nora was sitting atop their desk, and Ren was leaning against the wall and right next to the door.

"No." Weiss heard Ruby's voice, filled with worry. She spotted her young partner standing in the middle of the bedroom, and also Yang and Blake near the bunk beds. Zwei was nowhere to be found, so he was probably fast asleep somewhere hidden in the dorm again in case a Resident Assistant came by.

"She was fine one moment and the next… I'm going to go and look for her." Ruby started making here way to the door, causing Weiss to drop her smart vision and nearly give her a panic attack before she heard Blake come up and stop the red hooded girl.

"Wait!"

"I can't do nothing Blake!" Ruby exclaimed.

"I'm not asking you to. But right now the best thing we can do is give her space to think. You said she'd come back. Just have some patience and some faith in her." Blake's voice was calm, always the voice of reason.

"We gave you time to think and you never came back." Yang entered the conversation, her usual cheery attitude replaced by seriousness. "If Weiss decides to stay away like you did, she might just quit and go back to Atlas."

"She won't. She's much stronger than me. She'll come back when she's ready." There was silence for a moment before Blake's attention was seemingly back on Ruby. "Don't you trust your partner?"

"Of course I do! But-" Ruby quickly shot back; and was just as quickly counted by Blake.

"Then show it by giving her the space she needs. And if if she isn't back by morning, and you still feel the need to search, I'll help you look."

"I... I don't know…" Even through the door, it was clear how unsure Ruby felt.

"Listen to Blake, Ruby." Pyrrha 's voice came up, completely sympathetic. "If what you said is true, then I think I know what's wrong with her."

"You do?" Many of the room unisoned. Mainly Jaune and Weiss's teammates.

Ruby then followed by hurling questions without giving Pyrrha a chance to respond. "What is it? Why did this happen? Is there anything we can do?"

"I'm sorry Ruby," Pyrrha interrupted the energetic girl. "But this is something that Weiss will have to tell you herself, and only if she wants to."

Hearing Ruby whimper slightly made Weiss decide she had waited enough. They obviously weren't going to let the matter stand and she was running out of time.

Taking a deep breath, Weiss entered the room with a lowered head and closed eyes. She was expecting a bunch of questions at best and a slap at worst. And Yang no matter what...

What she didn't expect was for two arms to be thrown around her.

"Weiss! You're okay!" Ruby squealed.

Opening her eyes, Weiss saw the relieved looks of her teammates. Even from Yang, though her's was more subtle.

"Yes, I'm fine Ruby. But I…" she began, but was starting to loose her train of thought. Where should she start? Her mind was completely drawing a blank.

In Weiss's struggle to find words, Ruby released Weiss from the hug and once again bombarded questions faster than anyone could follow; never mind an answer.

"What happened? Where did you go? Is something wrong? Are you hurt?"

Weiss held up a hand to silence her partner, covering Ruby's mouth and muffling her speech. In classic Ruby fashion though, she muffled on about a dozen more questions before even realizing the change. When silent, Weiss lowered her hand, and took a deep breath.

"Ruby, please. I will answer your questions, but first there's something-" She started, hoping to gain momentum.

"No buts." Interrupted Yang as she jumped from her bed on the top bunk. She came over to Weiss, standing intimidatingly above her."You threw my sister into a wall. So I'll only ask this once. What in the name of Dust is going on?"

Weiss hesitated under the fiery glare of the brawler. She knew she had to warn them, but she also knew if she didn't answer Yang's question right now there would be problems. But now that she was face to face with them... it seemed even harder. What would they think? Would they judge her for what she was like so many in the old world judged those like her?

"...The truth is... The reason that... I..."

"You're augmented, aren't you?"

Weiss looked around to see, to her surprise, it was Pyrrha who spoke out.

"It's alright Weiss. No one here will judge you." She reassured with a smile.

Weiss responded slowly. Somehow it seemed easier since she didn't have to say the word. "…Yes. I've been augmented since a young age. I've depended on them my entire life. It's why I was so… angry when I first arrived. Adapting was extremely… difficult. In a lot of ways."

Deafening silence filled the room. So quiet that one such as Weiss could quite literally hear a pin being dropped onto the floor as Nora moved her legs atop the desk.

"What does augmented mean?" Ruby asked with a confused look on her face, thankfully breaking the ominous quiet.

"It means she's part machine. A cyborg." All eyes turned to Blake, who had a somber look on her face.

And there it was. To be judged by Blake, a Faunus. Someone who's people Weiss herself had judged. Fate loved her little ironies.

"You sound like you disapprove." Ren stated more as a fact then a question from his position, still leaning on the wall. It was almost unnatural how nothing about him seemed uncomfortable with any of this.

"Not of the augmented, or even the idea of augmentations. Just what they represent." Seeing Weiss raise a questioning eyebrow made Blake take a deep sigh.

"I heard about augments through rumours while I was with the White Fang. Stories of our people in cells from Atlas and Mistral who were becoming so augmented, it became hard to tell where they ended and the machine began. Of course our new leader did nothing about it, only saying they would help further our cause. Since then, violence has only got worse, including bombings. Those individuals had become so violent and dangerous, even the leaders of our cells wouldn't let them come into our region. Augmentations had made even our own brothers and sisters the stuff of nightmares- we had begun fearing our own kind."

Blake folded her arms, lowered her eyes and withdrew herself to her bed. She sat down. Staring at the floor for a silent moment before speaking up again.

"When I was a bit younger and heard about the possibilities augmentations brought, I truly thought that they could be used as a way to bridge the gap; That they could somehow be a way to bring humans and Faunus together by having something in common. I believed for some time they could be one way to give us a future. Except all they did was make it easier to take another's away."

Pyrrha approached Blake, sitting beside her and placing her arm around the rouge's shoulders in comfort.

"You're right. That's why I stopped when I did." Pyrrha said, shocking everyone in the room. Especially Jaune. "They make it too easy for others to take power."

"You're augmented too?" Weiss asked. "I would've thought you were pure."

Pyrrha looked at Weiss for a long moment, before briefly turning her gaze to everyone for brief instant. She then looked up at the ceiling. A sad smile took shape as she became seemingly lost in thoughts and memories. Sad, and happy ones. And many more that fit somewhere in-between.

"Yes. It's true." She said.

"What?"

"Huh?"

"You are?!" Cries came out from out from Ruby, Yang, and Jaune respectively. The reaction causing the gladiator to chuckle a bit and abandon her somber expression for a new and brighter one.

"I suppose- in a way- I'm living prove that, no matter what they've become, augmentations have a place in modern society. When I was young, I would have died of a weak heart if it wasn't for a charity event hosted by a company from Mistral, called Tai Yong Medical. They gave me a cybernetic heart to replace my failing one. And I was finally able to live a normal life after some years of being bed ridden. Then, after winning my first tournament, it was then upgraded by Darrow Industries to cope with the increased heart rate when fighting. I even got new eyes from Sarif industries for being a cereal mascot. Though, it was around then that I realized that... these people didn't care about helping others. All they cared about and all I had ever been was a chance to promote their products and make money. So I left for Beacon, a fresh and new start, and I _never_ looked back." Pyrrha let out another soft, though humourless, laugh.

"Imagine that. The champion that everyone looks up to, aspires to… would have died in a crib if not for augmentation." She then turned her head to Blake. "So while augmentations may be abominations to you, I owe them too big a debt to just reject them wholeheartedly."

"I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't know." Blake said sympathetically.

"Don't be. What you said is true in some aspects. Augmentation has caused a lot of bad. Especially in recent years. But it has also caused some good."

"Yeah, like me!" Norah shouted, attracting everyone's attention as she sprang to her feet.

"_You too?"_ Jaune exasperated. His brain was beginning to fry from all this.

"Yup yup. I developed stomach cancer caused by a dormant gene, whatever that means. I had to have my whole stomach replaced! But I'm fine now." She finished with a grin.

"Apart from an unusual side effect." Ren said with a smile. "Her cybernetic stomach processes food quicker, meaning she has too eat more; faster to feel full."

"That explains a lot." Yang said, pinching between her brow as she shook her head. "Too much actually."

"The point I was trying to make, is that you are not alone Weiss." Pyrrha regained control of the conversation. She stood back up and approached Weiss. "We're all here for you."

"I… Thank you." Weiss was almost at a loss for words.

This was a lot to take in. So many things she didn't expect to hear. Weiss had a much more diverse group of friends then she could ever ask for. It was such a great feeling that she could feel tears starting to form in her eyes. Which of course she quickly wiped away as not to make a scene or ruin her image.

"You said adapting was difficult. What did you mean?" Jaune asked. His face and tone was one of uncharacteristic solemn and thought. His mind racing with all of this revelation- especially on his own team.

Weiss and Pyrrha looked uneasy at the question. Eventually, Weiss responded.

"Augmentation technology is only prominent in Atlas and Mistral. Vale and Vacuo seem to fear it, to the point not many know of its existance. It is illegal to enter these kingdoms without having all non-vital augmentations deactivated; no exceptions. What happened in the library was my augmentations reactivating after a long time dormant." Weiss' tone suddenly changed to one of complete panic. "Listen, you can't tell anyone. If they found out-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Yang said waving her arms. "What has you worried?"

"The laws against augmentation are the harshest in Vale." Pyrrha explained. "Depending on how augmented the person is, the punishment can be a jail sentence, exile, or even death. Punishment can even extend to those involved, augmented or not. Depending on the circumstances."

"That's horrible…" Ruby said, shocked that people would go that far to keep augmentations quiet.

"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone." Ren said.

His comment was met with confirming nods from all but Blake, who seemed hesitant as she remained secluded on her bed. Everyone took on different looks of concern, and Weiss was about to panic when her friend spoke up slowly.

"You gave me a chance when not many would." She stood up from her bed, and approached the group. She stared down Weiss as she ended with:

"The least I can do is the same for you."

"Thank you!" Weiss happily cheered. She jumped forward, giving a brief hug to Blake before breaking off. She then grabbed Blake by the hands and jumped in place with them as she happily let out, "You have _no_ idea what this means to me!"

The sight was strange, and a bit scary for everyone. Blake though seemed unfazed by the alien reaction. She only raised an eyebrow to Weiss after she was done; Quickly calling forth a follow up as Weiss looked down, slightly blushing from embarrassment.

"Okay... Maybe you do."

Weiss then let go of Blake's hands, awkwardly turning away for a moment to let out some very obvious forced coughs and fidget with her clothes. Everyone else just found the experience surreal, and all mentally agreed they would probably _NEVER _see another reaction like that out of Weiss as long as _any_ of them lived.

"Sooooo…" Ruby said, breaking the awkward moment. "What kind of augmentations do you have? Do you have any special abilities?"

Her rising excitement was blatantly obvious, and Weiss couldn't help but suddenly feel uncomfortable that Ruby was now starting to look at her the same way she did with her scythe. And Ruby whispered and talked to that thing in private! That thought alone was enough to give Weiss chills and goosebumps...

"Alright Ruby." Yang said, calming her sister down and saving Weiss. "It's getting late and we all need some sleep."

With that, JNPR left RWBY's dorm room for their own. Ren and Nora walked away slightly ahead, with Jaune not far behind them. His head was lowered, and he avoid Pyrrha's attempt to catch up to him and talk.

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

A tall man in full armour and a helmet under his right arm walked through the halls of the warship; A serious and determined expression plastered almost permanently on his face. He was an older man, mid-thirties, and had a large head of curly, dark brown hair with a great bushy beard to go with it. His completely cybernetic left eye shined a brilliant golden colour all over, and was surrounded by scaring which he got during an accident in the augmentation surgery. The armour he wore was different to the other Atlas forces. Where theirs was white, his was jet black and far thicker. His armour was also highlighted in a golden-yellow hue, and completely clean of any marks- sharp and presentable.

The man arrived at his destination; a small and secure meeting room locked to those without authority. After pressing his hand to a scanner, the doors opened and the man entered. Inside an even older man in his later forties was sat on a chair with his feet resting on the room's round table, right beside his own helmet. In his hands was a discarded cybernetic arm that he was tinkering with, and on his face he wore a content smile as he did so. He was bald at the top of his head, revealing the usually subtle cybernetic implant of a Neural Hub. On the side of his head, grey hair would run down to his shoulders if it wasn't concealed in his armour. His beard was just as grey and long, slowly becoming braided as it went down, hanging free and loose . This older man also wore jet black armour with golden-yellow highlights, but his armour bore symbols and patterns on it that suggested he was a leader or of someone of importance.

Realizing he hadn't been spotted, the younger man at the door spoke up. "You wanted to see me Captain Sovann?"

Sovann looked up from the arm, faking brief surprise at the man's appearance before returning to his tinkering.

"Ah, Megas. Didn't hear you come in. Guess its time to get the old hearing aids upgraded to something more permanent, wouldn't you say?"

Megas's expression did not change, and he did not answer. Finding his attempt at having some fun with the lad failing, Sovann moved on to businesses.

"I wanted to make sure everything was ready for the mission."

"Yes sir." Megas Eunoia confirmed with a nod. "We're just waiting for clearance sir."

Sovann looked up from his pass time at Megas, locking eyes. "Hmph, so formal. Has there ever been a time you weren't a stiff?"

He removed his feet from the desk and reached beside him, producing a bottle of whisky. "Come, sit down. I find a drink always helps before a high stake mission such as this."

"No thanks sir." Megas rejected immediately with a wave of his free hand. "I prefer to keep a clear head in a fight."

"Oh one drink won't make the world spin." Sovann said, rolling his eyes as he poured two drinks. "Besides, right now we're off duty. And for god's sake call me Kierran, you've known me long enough." Kierran then took both glasses in each hand, and held one of the glasses out to his still unamused comrade.

Knowing his boss wouldn't back down, Megas sighed, walked over, and took the offered drink. He began to raise it to his lips, hoping to down it quickly and leave before his boss would make him have another. Though before the young man could even get that far, Kierran stopped him by loudly clearing his throat; causing Megas to look back down at him.

"Here's to our success." Kierran happily cheered, raising his own glass in a toast. The younger man however did not follow suit.

"We've got to win yet." Megas responded before emptying the glass and placing it back on the table, leaving Kierran holding his glass high.

Kierran lowered his glass with a sigh. "One day you'll learn to relax."

It was then that a voice came over the comms built into their heads.

_"Deus Novo has departed. Titans, you are clear to storm Olympus."_

"Well, time to earn our pay." Kierran said, rising to his feet and then downed his drink. "Let's move."

"Yes sir." Megas said, placing his bird shaped helmet on his head.

"Oh, one more thing." Kierran said reaching for his own helmet.

"Sir?"

"We are on duty now. Codenames only." Kierran said as he placed his helmet on his head, sounding serious for the first time this encounter.

"Understood, Cronus." Megas confirmed, briefly saluting.

"Well then." Kierran set aside his favorite scotch back into a tiny cabinet under the round table, along with the arm he'd been working on. "Come along Prometheus. We shouldn't keep the others waiting."

The two then left the meeting room. They walked side by side as they made their way to the hanger area.

* * *

"Do you remember the plan?"

"Of course sir." Prometheus said, leaving no room for doubt.

"Tell me." Cronus ordered. It wasn't that he doubted those under him. He always tested them to check that they had all the details, especially his second in command.

"Very well." Prometheus obeyed without hesitation. "Mnemosyne is running coordination between the teams. Coeus is to infiltrate the outside communication building, shutting down all possible calls for assistance. When he gives the all clear, I am to lead Themis, Hyperion and Phoebe as a distraction team. Hyperion is to detonate an explosive, attracting all personnel to us and causing non-combatants to initiate emergency protocols."

"You mean hide? Bit ironic considering who the 'non-combatants' are, don't ya think?" Cronus said with a laugh.

Ignoring his boss, Prometheus continued. "Our mission is to distract. While this is going on, you and Atlas are to infiltrate and eliminate the target, designation Zeus. When that is done, we will fall back and pick you up during extraction. If we need to abort, the procedure's the same."

"And?" Cronus further questioned.

"Nothing. That's everything."

"No, it's not. You forgot the most important detail." Cronus said. "Even with the cut communications, we only have a limited window before the Atlas forces have to act. They don't know about the mission. If we're not gone before they arrive, they will attack us. To monitor this window is Mnemosyne's second role."

"Time does not matter to me. It takes as long as it takes. We will hold no matter what comes." Prometheus said confidently.

"No." Cronus said with as much certainty. "I'd like to think we're good, but not that good. And I'd rather we didn't kill our own brothers and sisters in arms. Or do you not feel that same comradeship?"

Prometheus knew better not to answer that question.

The two arrived in the hanger and proceeded to a stealth drop ship at the back. They entered at the cargo hold to see the rest of the team already waiting. The one that stood out the most was a slender woman sat at a large collection of computers. Instead of a helmet, she wore a hood and face mask to conceal her features.

"Word from Coeus. He has infiltrated the building and will have communications down in fifteen minutes." She said without turning away from the screens.

"Thank you Mnemosyne." Cronus said as he and Prometheus took their seats. "We're ready Themis, let's go."

"Yes sir." A voice said from the front.

The ship took off and left the hanger. And so it was that strike Titan left on a mission that would change everything… For better or for worse.

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

As his vision returned, the ginger haired prisoner only saw the floor and wall as one bright shade of red. Though before he could rejoice in the fact his new friends hadn't beaten him to death (yet), he felt a sharp pain as the bigger grunt- the one with the red trimmed armor- kicked at his stomach one last time. The impact started another violent coughing fit, and the criminal's vision began to tunnel again. He could taste copper in his mouth with every painful hack, which oddly tasted slightly different from the blood that was leaking from his broken nose.

"Come on. Let's get out of here before the General shows up." The smaller, yellow trimmed grunt said.

As his coughing began to settle and the grunts began to leave, the man in the once fancy suit called after them.

"Oh do stay longer next time. I always enjoy these little visits!"

The automatic door closed behind the men, and the locks reengaged; trapping Torchwick once more in the complete darkness of his cell.

This was the seventh little "visit" that Roman has had since being imprisoned on this Atlas warship. And every time it was the same routine, but always with different soldiers. He'd know it was coming whenever he could hear his normal guards walking away. The door to his insanely small cell would open, and then the master thief's whole body would begin surging with electricity from a taser weapon. After the first few assaults, Torchwick had even tried rushing out and surprising his attackers as they were opening the door… Though that didn't end well for him. That little fiasco only gave the guards a free excuse to break his leg with the cameras rolling.

In the infirmary, after said leg breaking attack, Roman could remember having to step to a lower level and try begging Ironwood to stop the attacks. His body couldn't take much more, and anything he tried to do to make it stop only got him beaten worse. Unfortunately, that conversation went about as well as you'd expect.

* * *

_"At this rate, you might as well just say goodbye to your only source of information. Because by the time that festival rolls around, I'm going to be in a coma!"_

_"Well, I haven't seen any of these attacks, the cameras around your cell have no footage of such events, and the fine men and women on this ship have heard no rumors of these supposed beatings."_

_"Supposed? Supposed! Are you so thick in the head that you would honestly think I would BREAK MY OWN LEG?!"_

_"I'll have you know that I only deal with facts. And all I know for certain is that twice now, you have attempted to attack my men and attempted to escape. From first glance, that could easily explain all you injuries. And frankly it is your word against the word of my trusted soldiers. So, with those facts in mind, I see no reason to look into this matter further. Those injuries are completely justifiable. Take him back to his cell."_

_"...Wait! Alright, you win. I can see now that this has all been a huge play to get me to talk. And you know, I can respect that. I mean, I would do the same thing. I can see now that your boys have been just **itching** to take a swing at me since I caused that 'little incident' and delayed the festival and nearly killed a bunch of people and yadayada- really, I get it. So, how about this? Call off your mutts, and we can have a good old sit down; just like you've been wanting for awhile eh? What do ya say, Jamesy old boy! Deal?"_

_"... I told you before Mr. Torchwick: We have all the time in the world to talk. But right now, I have a very important matter to attend to. So, I'm sure you can wait just a little bit longer. Now, good day."_

_"Wait! But...You… You said...You... You SON OF A-"_

* * *

So much for plan A. But overall, Roman was glad that things worked out like this. After all, it wouldn't look good for his legacy if he died begging like some snot nosed brat. If he was going to die, he might as well die with some shred of dignity left.

As Roman turned on his stomach, using his arms to slowly lift himself back onto his feet, he mumbled to himself:

"Oh what am I thinking. I'm not gonna die here."

He lifted himself up, then took a seat on his only piece of furniture, a small seat attached to the wall. His vision was still pulsing with red, but that would wear off soon; Probably. He removed both his scarf and his signature coat; using the scarf to clean up his face and stop the bleeding, and taking the coat off since it was torn in several places and covered in blood both old and new. It was ruined. Everything… ruined.

"Whatever they are up to, they better do something fast." He grumbled to himself.

The thought that the real mastermind, Cinder and her other cohorts, had left him to die here had crossed his mind more than once. Though Roman, like idiots he'd made fun of before, prayed and hoped that someone, _anyone_, would rescue him. For despite years of people calling him a psycho maniac, Roman really was a smart man. With his initial sarcastic introductions to the General aside, he knew quite well the reality of where he was, and of the people who were holding him. Atlas has the greatest technology and military on Remnant, and he was given over to them _completely_; To a people where capital punishment was a harsh reality for many criminals.

So with his record? Forget it. As soon as Roman were to spill his guts, Ironwood would have it promptly done literally.

Sure, at the beginning he knew what he was getting into when Emerald and Mercury handed him over, but Roman had been sure they'd come get him by now. Frankly waiting was his only choice at this point- other than a miraculous escape. With all the sarcasm and vulgarity he's thrown out at Ironwood, he had guaranteed himself that there was no deal making to be made (if there ever was). And even if he had made a deal, who's to say Ironwood wouldn't have killed him anyway? Not to mention _T__hey_ would be after him.

And then it hit him. Just as he had stopped the bleeding of his nose and cleaned his face up, it hit him like an slap from an Ursa.

Maybe he had been played the entire time. Perhaps Cinder had a different goal than the one he had thought; perhaps that whole Majestic thing he had heard about was nothing more than a ploy made by _T__hem_? Maybe it was all a lie to begin with?

_They_ had to be up to something. No doubt. But perhaps… Perhaps Roman's employers had never even _considered_ rewarding him in the end. Maybe in the end… He truly was nothing more than that woman's pawn.

"Damn." The thief whispered solemnly to himself.

Silence followed. Torchwick sat there, hanging his head and running a hand through his bangs. A wave of complete defeat completely washed over him- something he wasn't used to feeling- and completely anchored itself in his chest. He could also feel a headache coming on, among other things. Suddenly his usual cocky and confident persona was starting to wear thin, and seemed childish. Perhaps this was him coming to acceptance?

"...No."

Suddenly, anger surged through the classy crook. The defeatist attitude was swiftly tossed aside as his blood abruptly felt like it was boiling, and he could feel his heart starting to pick up the pace once again.

"No. No _way_ is this how _I_ am going to end!" He shouted out into his cell. He stood up, nearly toppling over in pain, and started banging on the door to his cell with both of his fists.

"DO YOU HEAR ME! I'M GOING TO SURVIVE! I WILL NOT FALL! NOT BY _ANY_ OF YOUR HANDS! I GO ON _MY _TERMS!"

He just kept banging and yelling out. He kept punching and smashing into that cold, hard door until his gloves began to tear at the seams. Then until his knuckles began to bleed. Roman didn't stop shouting until his voice gave out completely, and later he only stopped his assault on the door after all of his energy had completely faded. He sank to his knees, breathing heavily, with his forehead resting on the cold metal door; All of his anger and frustration made against it hadn't even made a single scratch. All he had managed to do was make it filthy. Quite the allegory.

"Heh..." He quietly, insanely laughed to himself. "What a drag."

* * *

Roman must have fallen asleep like that- or more likely passed out- but was awoken when he felt something. It was subtle, something one wouldn't notice unless they were at the right spot on an airship and if they were as perfectly still as he had been. The ship was moving differently.

In the many weeks since being aboard, whatever this ship was called, Roman could not recall once it deviating from its standard low and slow patrol from Vale to Beacon and back. There had been once where the ship had landed, but that was different from this. They were heading somewhere else.

The thief then pressed his ear to his cell door, feeling the cold seep into his head, but not even noticing that as murky sounds traveled through. At some point during his sleep, some new guards must have finally returned to their positions on both sides of his cell. They were talking, and their voices carried a sense of urgency noticeable even through the thick door.

_"What do you think is going on? You think it's another drill?"_

_"We don't have class two drills, so this must be for real."_

_"If it is real, I can't believe that we're the ones that have to deal with it. If it is a Valian village under attack, then the Valian forces should deal with it. Or at least some hunters."_

_"Well, if it's a massive Grimm attack, maybe they need a small army with some serious firepower to deal with it."_

_"...Aw man. I didn't think about that! Geeze, now I'm really praying that it's some kind of drill. I don't wanna go up against an entire army of Grimm!"_

_"I wouldn't get your hopes up."_

Yes. So they were heading away from Vale. But, something seemed off. Something just didn't feel right to Torchwick. Call it years of experience or from his time with Cinder and _Them_, but this just screamed a whole choir of wrong. Roman couldn't explain the gut feeling.

_However…_ He thought to himself. _This is an excellent opportunity to make a play..._

As he finished that thought, Roman then was reminded quickly of why he was sitting here; having passed out in front of a slightly bloodied door with bruised and filthy knuckles.

_Or, perhaps I should try a different approach? I'm on my own, so maybe it's time to go back to basics and start looking out for who's important. And maybe I could use the General to get back at the-_

_"... Well then I'll just check on him real quick, and if he's still out cold, I'll just make a run back to dorms and bring it back. Besides, even if he's up it's not like he can get out."_

Roman had been so caught up in his own internal debate, he just barely caught that last line from one of his guards before they popped open his cell door.

He acted quickly and on the fly, closing his eyes and going limp as the door open. He landed face first out of his cell and onto the hard floor outside. He used all his willpower to make himself completely still, and to make his breathing slow to a crawl. Not to mention make himself not laugh at the soldiers he had apparently startled.

"Oh man, I didn't think he was pressed right up against the door!" The hopeful guard on Roman's left said.

The guard on the right, the more serious one, only growled and sent a kick into Torchwick's right side. And even with all his will to stay still, Roman couldn't stop his body from twitching in pain; the best he could do was keep his eyes closed and hold in a yelp on the inside.

"I wish the General would just let us kill this guy…" The right guard thought aloud to her partner. "He's never gonna talk. And I'm getting tired of putting myself out on a limb trying to help the General. Do you know that Ironwood already sent Rouge home because of this guy?"

"Hence why I didn't want to be apart of that." Lefty then sighed. "Come on, help me lift him up."

"Hold on, are you sure he's out cold?" Ms. Righty asked, poking Torchwick with the tip of her gun.

_Oh for the love of- YES!_ Roman screamed in his head.

"By the looks of it, yeah. He's out like a light. Maybe in coma." The left boy concluded. "In that case, we're gonna need to get him to medical."

Suddenly Righty seemed to perk up, with her tone clearing into a more optimistic beat.

"Well lets just throw him back in the cell, and head there together. He's not going anywhere, and dorms are on the way to medical. I'm telling ya, it'll calm your nerves and I'm sure you're gonna start loving Proenergy bars. They finally added flavor to those thing, and they're delicious!"

"But you don't even have augments. Why do you buy them anyway? Why not just by non-augmented focused energy bars? They're a lot cheaper anyway." The boy asked, seemingly ignoring Torchwick still just lying there.

_Oh for the love of… shoot me! I don't care anymore, SHOOT ME!_ Roman groaned in his head. _Do all these soldiers do is stand around and talk!?_

Roman decided to make a risky move. He let a soft moan pass from his lips, as natural as he could make it. It seemed to do the trick, because immediately both of the imbeciles became quiet and a silence hung in the air for a long few seconds.

"Come on. Help me out and then tell me on the way." The boy said.

Roman could then feel both guards taking him by the arms, and then feel himself being lifted up by their shoulders- his arms hanging limply behind their backs and his head drooping from both of their shoulders. Though just as Roman finally achieved what he wanted… they started talking again.

"Man, he's surprisingly heavy. At least he's eating." Ms. Righty started in.

"Now hold on. You're concern is not that you and your friends are beating him up- against the General's orders by the way- but that he's eating his meals?" Mr. Left pointed out.

"No way. I'm just pointing it out. And I feel like I'm doing all the lifting, so shut it and help me!"

As interesting as that last line was, Roman couldn't agree more with the girl. Though not a moment later and it seemed even the lady guard wasn't going follow her own advice. For as soon as the two set Roman down on his seat, she began babbling about something else as the two exited.

"It's weird seeing him without his coat on."

"I think it's weirder that his undershirt is a sleeveless, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd wear one. I wonder, do you think he worked out?"

"Max… Don't go there. I'm tired of having to be your therapist, and I can tell where this line of thinking is gonna end up."

"Look, you know I don't mean to do that. I just miss him is all. I mean after he left me for-"

And the door closed, cutting the boy off and throwing Roman back into darkness- back into complete, blissful silence. The only sound that could be faintly heard was the taps of the soldiers' boots as they walked away from his cell, and even that grew quieter with every moment. But Roman didn't open his eyes or even move until he couldn't hear the thumps anymore.

As soon as the taps faded out, Torchwick opened his eyes let out a loud groan.

"Finally."

The crook reached into his pocket, and pulled out the prizes he snatched from those idiots by sleight of hand. A small box of taser darts, and a small foldable weapon that read along the side, 'Buzzkill TND'.

Roman began laughing to himself, proclaiming proudly: "Still got it."

It took Roman a minute to find both places where the locks engaged. Once found, he loaded a dart into the taser, tried his best to aim into the upper cracks of door, and fired. He could feel the gun in his hands recoil slightly, and his cell grew bright blue for a brief moment. At first, nothing seemed to happen. But as he was loading in another dart, Roman could hear a soft _clunk_ sound from the door.

Torchwick did the same thing for the other locking mechanism near the floor, and the same soft _clunk_ sound also happened. The door wasn't locked anymore, but now came the really challenging part- moving the door aside. Though first Roman felt around for his signature coat and scarf he had tossed aside, putting them both back on. He then stuffed his new best friend into his coat pocket, and felt around again for the edges of his door.

"Oh, this is gonna be a pain isn't it?" Roman complained aloud, already feeling his tired and bruised body protesting at just the mere idea.

Regardless of his second thoughts, Roman grabbed a firm hold on the door, and then pulled with all his strength to the left. He could feel his legs starting to shake and buckle beneath him, his arms began burning like they were completely on fire, and he could feel every individual bruise on his back and torso hollering like banshees in agony.

"Yeee-uup. I. Kneeeew. Thiiisss. Waaaasss. Gooonaaa. Suuuck." Was all the thief could let out before his rapid breathing prevented any other snark from getting loose.

It had to have weighed near a ton- at least to Roman it did. Though it was moving. Ever so slightly, the door was moving aside; gliding inch by inch out of his way. To move the thing it felt like Roman was receiving all of those beatings all over again, but as soon as the door moved enough for an open crack to appear; with a sliver of evening light seeping through; he wasn't about to stop.

He had listened in before starting, and it didn't sound like the guards had returned. But he couldn't stop to see out of the now open crack to make sure again. He could feel it in every burning muscle; if he stopped pulling, he wouldn't have the strength to start again. And he was so close. So close to…

"There!" Roman huffed, letting go of the door. It was open enough. Opened wide enough that he could just slide through. Freedom!

Roman looked out the open crack, checking for guards. But he also couldn't help enjoying the feeling of basking in the sunset's light. Any other day before this, and he wouldn't have even given that ball of gas a second thought. But today, after all this, the man who had been a thief all his life wanted nothing more than the sunlight itself.

When it appeared to be clear, Roman slipped through the crack and out into the large open room. He started walking casually- both hands in his coat pockets- across the room, and then took a left and down to the main window where the sunset was shining into this depressing brig. He was slightly paranoid that his loud steps echoing in this room could be heard all over the ship, but with some convincing of himself he knew if that was true the alarms would be going off.

Once reaching the large window, he looked over the landscape of the countryside. Green fields both flat and with hills, forests both small and large, what appeared to be a small village off in the distance, and Roman could just barely make out a mountain in the far distance behind the sunlight- Mountain Glenn and its aptly named city ruins.

They were definitely not near Vale anymore…

"Where the hell are we going?" Roman pondered, squinting as he leaned against the large glass window; hoping to at least see Vale. "Didn't that idiot soldier say something about there being an attack?"

The more he thought about it, the more it seemed… odd. That gut feeling was still firmly planted at the pit of Roman's stomach, and he couldn't shake the feeling of something not being right. Then again, maybe he was just hungry. His rations sucked.

Roman then began smiling to himself, day dreaming how nice it would be to go find those two idiot guards and give them a taste of their own shock therapy. And while he was at it, he would probably steal that energy bar those morons were going on about. Torchwick had tried those things before, and he couldn't understand how cyborgs could even stand the things. But hey, food is food. Better than the slop he's been given.

The ginger thief shook his head, wiping away his smile and his daydream. It was time to get to work getting off this flying rust bucket.

Roman stepped away from the window, stepping back to a small control panel stationed in front of it. He started to power the system up, wondering both who owes him enough favors to come rescue him and how much time he'd have before the alarms sounded from the outgoing transmission.

_Maybe instead, I could just take care of the guards when they come back and steal a uniform? The boy may be my size. Then I would have a weapon, and an easy path to the hangar. And I wouldn't have to worry about the cam-_

Torchwick froze; His finger barely above the hologram projection button. Suddenly he felt like the biggest idiot in the world for forgetting something so vital. He'd been so caught up his own freedom that he forgot the reason why those idiot guards could leave him completely alone.

He turned his head to the right, and found himself staring directly into the lens of an active security camera mounted on the wall. One of many stationed all over this brig.

"...Cameras." Torchwick finished his thought.

With that, Roman's fingers moved like the wind. He turned his head back to the computer and forwent the flashy holograms entirely to work as fast as he could. He scrambled through menus, desperately looking for the operation to engage communications. At any moment a team of Atlas soldiers could come rushing in, and they wouldn't need to sound the alarm. In fact, for all Torchwick knew there was no alarm installed in this holding area so prisoners didn't know what was happening.

Curses of all varieties and languages flowed like a stream from Torchwick's mouth. He needed to go faster. Faster! FASTER!

_"One day you'll learn to relax."_

The sudden audio from the consoles speakers busted to life; echoing off the walls to give a booming effect; nearly made Roman jump out of both his coat and skin. Followed by the natural gut reaction of:

"Daughters of a bastard!" Roman yelped out in an embarrassingly higher pitch.

When he calmed down, the ginger haired thief noticed he was indeed on the communications system. Though it appeared in his frantic typing he had accidentally jumped in on a different transmission; A secure transmission that nobody could probably get into unless they were already on the inside.

Suddenly another voice blared from the speakers. A voice that Roman recognized right away.

_"Deus Novo has departed. Titans, you are clear to storm Olympus."_

"Ironwood?" Roman questioned aloud. "You're attacking… Olympus?"

Roman racked his brain for Atlas folklore. Olympus was supposedly a mountain in the Atlian region where great hunters were trained; Supposedly the first great academy. The legend went that there was a small village at the bottom of the mountain, protected by the hunters. Then one day, a great army of Grimm attacked, clashing with the hunters. The hunters won, as usual, but their leaders were so devastated by the loss of so many young hunters and so many innocents that they decided to completely lock up the whole village behind Olympus and trapped the people behind a great wall and the surrounding mountains- these oppressors were called the Titans.

The Titans were so paranoid about keeping people safe and strong, that they controlled everyone's lives for the supposed better. Well, another group of younger hunters were not happy about this; they believed the people would be unhappy by the direct influence, and that they should let the people _feel_ free and only make course corrections for them in a more subtle matter- these hunters, lead by a man named Zeus, called themselves the Olympians.

Now in the story, the Olympians fight an underground war against the Titans, and win. They banish the Titans off Olympus and make the village into a supposedly happier place. And while there's more to that story- something about the Titans returning, the people fight against both sides, a moral about control will always destroy itself, and something about letting loose a giant squid monster- Roman couldn't help but wonder the purpose for the names. It couldn't be a coincidence, because he knew he'd heard the comparison somewhere before. _She_ said it once... before the CCT bugging operation.

Yes. It was coming back to Roman now. Cinder offhandedly mentioned that Ironwood and Schnee were nothing more than, "Titans made out of tin and wires". So if Ironwood and his robo pals are the Titans in this, then _T__hey _are the Olympians. And if _They_ are the Olympians, their Olympus- their hunter academy- is...

"No, that's crazy. They're just using those names. The general wouldn't..."

Torchwick then saw it with his own eyes. Coming from somewhere below his position, probably a hangar, came a completely black and slimmed down Bullhead. It rose out, taking to the skies, and then started flying off towards Mountain Glenn. Towards Vale.

"Oh what the hell did I get myself into?" Roman said, stunned at what he had just heard and seen. And he thought his side was complicated. Somehow, Ironwood must have figured out that the big bad headmaster is-

_"FREEZE!" _A gruff sound came from behind the thief, along with the sounds of several laser grade and ballistic weapons alike being armed.

Busted.

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

When the door was closed, all of RWBY began preparations for bed. Ruby herself grabbed her pajamas and headed for the bathroom to brush teeth and change. Yang just opted to jump up to her bed, pop off her shoes and sleep as she was. And Weiss had gone over to move the desk chair back where it belonged and to rearrange everything on their study desk that had been moved about by Nora. Though once finished, Weiss was surprised to see Blake still standing there in the middle of the room. Arms folded, and still watching her with those intense amber eyes of hers.

Weiss approached, starting off. "Listen, Blake-"

"Just answer me this." Blake interrupted the Heiress. "Did you have to get augmented, or did you choose to?"

Weiss's eyes widen a bit at first, before she tilted her head slightly and her brow knitted some. "Would it make a difference?"

"It makes _all _the difference."

The two stared at each other in the eye; Neither willing to back down. Finally, Weiss relented.

"The choice was made for me… by my father." Weiss mentioned the last bit as a whisper, but Blake still heard.

"I see." Was all she said before grabbing her PJs and disappearing into the bathroom.

"Don't worry Weiss. She'll come round. I know it." Yang called up from her bed. She was currently scrolling through her Scroll for messages.

"But how can you know that?"

"Because you came round for her. It's what a team does. Be accepting of each other. Plus she's your friend on top of that."

Weiss looked down in thought. _Is__ it really that simple? _And began loosing herself in deep thought.

The Heiress then thought she heard Yang say something else. When surfacing back into the real world, she looked up at Yang and said, "Could you repeat that?"

Yang broke her eyes away from her Scroll and centered them on Weiss, repeating herself.

"I said, why didn't you tell us sooner? Like when Blake was telling us her secrets? Surely it would have been better then to get them all out at once."

Weiss broke off from Yang and started staring out their open window into some far off sight no one but her could see. She stayed quiet for a moment before answering.

"Everyone has secrets Yang. And some people, like me, will lie to keep it that way. It's not because we want to. It's because we have too, either for safety or out of shame for what we have done. Or what we... have become." Weiss explained. She then looked down at her hands. She flexed each of her fingers, one by one; watching as data, maps, and all sorts of pop ups appeared before her that only she could notice. To Yang, all she could see was her sad teammate's glowing golden eyes.

"Hey now." Yang gently punched Weiss on the shoulder, breaking her from her trance. She didn't even notice Yang had jumped down to cheer her up.

"Augmented or not, you're still the same old Ice Queen to me."

"But what if not having the augments made me like that? You never knew me before. What if I could have been someone different? I've had my augments taken for so long, that now I have them back, I'm starting to realize just how... different one can be without them. It's like, for a long time I've been on withdraw. So angry... And so cold."

Weiss raised her left hand back to her face, and began staring it down again.

"...Or maybe... I'm just going crazy and imagining things now that I've got all my system's back online. And it's not like I can just turn them off now- not without getting myself or you all into serious trouble. And how am I going to continue my life here at Beacon now?"

"...Weiss," Yang said. "Look at me."

Weiss put her hand down, and focused her entire attention on Yang's face. Her expression went flat and serious

"There's nothing to be gained from talking like that. What is… What could have been… It doesn't change anything. Who you are is my friend, and I wouldn't have it, or you, any other way. And we'll figure this all out together. As a team." Yang's eyes and expression then turned soft. So motherly and comforting, that Weiss couldn't help but feel a bit better inside.

"Thanks Yang." Weiss said with a small smile.

Yang nodded and turned to head to the bathroom, though instead stopped and instantly started chuckling. Weiss followed Yang's gaze and saw Ruby standing there, fidgeting. It actually looked a little cute to her.

"Something wrong Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"I uh, just… wondered if, you know, you'd tell me more about you're... augments." Ruby asked nervously.

"Ruby, I already said it's time for bed. We've all had a very tiring and very emotional day. It can wait for tomorrow." Yang said.

Ruby pouted but still went to her bed… reluctantly. Smiling, Yang turned back to Weiss. "I'd get to sleep while you can. Ruby's going to have a lot of questions in the morning." She then walked off to the bathroom for her quick pit stop before bed.

Blake came out of the bathroom right then, walking right past Yang, and was heading over to her own bed. Weiss couldn't help but wonder if she had been listening the whole time.

"Blake-"

"There's no need to say anything Weiss." Blake said when walking past her. "I've already said I'll give you a chance. Besides, who am I to blame you for what you're father did?" Blake then got into bed without another word.

It didn't seem like much, but to Weiss it was everything. Blake had accepted her for who she was, despite everything her family and augmentations had done to her. It was a weight off her shoulders.

Weiss- after changing and freshening up- turned out the lights and went to bed herself... her troubles faced and forgotten in the realm of sleep.

Including her warning with them.


	3. Chapter 2

**_Deus Ex: Bloody Evolution_**

**Chapter 2: Calamity**

Pyrrha woke with the sounds of drums still pulsing in her ears.

At first her breathing was rapid, though as she realized where she was and that the strange and twisted nightmare was all but gone, she calmed herself. She sat up in her bed, feeling her long crimson hair fall over her face. She took deep breathes- first through her nose, then holding for a moment, and then exhaling through her mouth. She did this several times, becoming more and more calm with every cycle as her muscles relaxed, her gooseflesh vanishing, and the nightmare slowly erased itself from her memory.

When she felt safe again, Pyrrha ran both of her hands through her free and messy hair; trying in vain to pull it all back behind her ears. It felt clammy with sweat. And as she finished clearing her face, Pyrrha felt a powerful urge to take a shower- Not helped by the fact her light T-shirt and shorts she slept in were sticking to her as well.

Though she'd happily take that over her dream of being completely soaked from blood...

"No. I couldn't possibly have another…" A slurred voice whispered into the dark.

Pyrrha looked over to her right and squinted to see more clearly. After a moment of adjustment, she saw that it was Nora talking in her sleep again. She had her legs against the headboard of the bed and was lying on her back. Her covers were twisted and tossed all over her space; with one pillow thrown to the other side of the room, while the other was being cuddled tightly.

"Well, if you insist Mr. Peach. I'd be happy to eat my other science project…" She said, starting to drool heavily and chew on her pillow.

The sight made a smile grow across Pyrrha's face, and she had to stifle a laugh. Nora always could make her smile- anyone smile, really.

Pyrrha then quickly glanced over at Ren; across from Nora's bed; noting that he was lying flat on his back, facing the ceiling, with all of his bed seemingly neater and more in place then before he got into it. He really was Nora's opposite in every way.

Her gaze then went across from her, to find the bed by Ren's empty.

The red haired gladiator looked towards the bathrooms, finding the door wide open and the lights off. She then looked at the clock near her bedside. It was three in the morning. A bit early to be up on a Saturday, and definitely too early for Jaune.

Pyrrha threw off her covers and walked (quietly) into the commons room. It was dark, and a bit messy, but Jaune wasn't there either. In fact, as Pyrrha began to wander through the commons room, she noticed that his personal locker wasn't closed all the way. Normally it's not in her nature to go snooping, but she just want to confirm her suspicions where he could be.

She opened his locker wider, finding it empty.

* * *

"HAH! HE-YAH! HO-HA! HA!"

Jaune swung his family blade with all his power, cutting through the air as he imagined himself slashing through Beowolves like they were made of tissue paper. He did this practicing all the right manoeuvres and techniques that Pyrrha had taught him and found that he'd been practicing them so much that he's gotten to the point they felt very natural. He felt a sense of pride underneath his anger with how far he's come since initiation.

Suddenly all the momentum in his swing was interrupted by a familiar red and golden-yellow blade. Jaune looked behind him and he was faced with his smiling partner. He'd been so into his practicing he hadn't even noticed her walk onto the roof. She had only Miló with her, her belt with the bronze plate and Miló's sheathe, and she was wearing a grey Beacon academy shirt with black shorts and some school jogging shoes. Her hair was tied back in her usual long ponytail, along with her headdress, and she had apparently decided to put on her earrings (Though forwent her usual light eye shadow). Oddly, Jaune thought it was the nice look for her. Almost like she was no different from him.

"You're getting better." She started. "Your technique is good. But if you fight with that much anger, you'll tire yourself out long before you've defeated the enemy."

Suddenly her bright green eyes became soft as she and Jaune lowered their weapons, and her expression turned into one of concern.

"Is something wrong Jaune?"

Jaune didn't answer her. His expression had only been an initial surprise when Pyrrha stopped him, but now it was nothing but indifference.

His eyes shifted for a moment to the ground, and then he turned his back to his partner and continued some blocking practicing.

"How did you know I was up here?" He said, sounding as though he didn't care whether she answered him or not.

Pyrrha could feel something inside of her recoil as if struck. Though she didn't give in; instead putting on a smile and trying to sound upbeat as she slowly approached closer to her friend.

"I decided to get up early. I noticed you weren't in bed, and that you'd changed into your gear. I thought you'd be down in the locker room, so I went to see if you'd gone down there. Your sword and shield were gone, so I figured you must be up here practicing."

Jaune just grunted in acknowledgement, not even bothering to turn around. Again, inside Pyrrha felt like her feelings had been struck again.

"Jaune..." Pyrrha nearly whispered. This was starting to feel like the first part of her nightmare; Maybe before long Atlas will declare war on Vale after all? "Please talk to me. I feel like I'm losing my best friend in all of Remnant..."

Jaune stopped his practicing. Both the knight's head and blade slumped downwards; the tip of the blade making a soft plunk sound as it hit the ground.

"I'm... your best friend?" He mumbled. His tone still sounded uninterested, though there was a hint of some other emotion. Frustration? Sadness?

"Of course! Jaune, remember at the dance? I told you, you saw me for who I was and helped me make so many friends. I meant all of what I said. And then when you came out in that dress and we danced... And on top of all that, we're partners."

Pyrrha felt strange. It all just came flowing out like a river. She could feel her eyes watering some, and strangely a smile was trying to form on her face- probably from recent memories. That night was more special to her then probably most of the students that had attended.

"I thought it was obvious that... I care about you. You've helped me so much. That's why I've been so eager to help you grow as a warrior. I see your skills, just as you saw me beyond my image."

Jaune remained still, not answering or even breathing for a moment that felt like a century to the gladiator. Perhaps it was too much. She'd been caught up in such a moment of concern, she'd obtained the courage to let some of her feelings out. Though despite this dreadful encounter, Pyrrha had to admit it was much easier to say then she had ever expected it to be. Perhaps if she knew what was bothering him, she could finally tell him that-

"If that's true, why didn't you tell me you were a cyborg?"

"Oh…" Was all Pyrrha's mind could grasp. It was insufferably obvious now. The other big secret. How could she be so naive!

"Jaune... Just because I'm part machine doesn't mean-"

The young knight threw his family heirloom to the ground and pivoted in the gladiator's direction. His face was turning slightly red from anger.

"That's not the point!"

His voice starting to speed up and tie up words as he got himself worked up.

"I don't care that you have a fake heart or eyes! That matters to me as much as the fact you're from Mistral! I just can't believe that you all lied to me!"

Pyrrha took a step backwards from Jaune, sheathing her weapon and giving him his moment to breathe and vent.

"Do you know what it's like for me to just suddenly find out that all my teammates, my friends, have been keeping this big collective secret from me? I told you my biggest secret! Do you know how hard that was for me? I still worry sometimes that one day, there'll be a point we're not friends or you're just mad at me, and I've got myself a one-way ticket back to Vale! I have horrible nightmares about that kind of thing! But you know what, sure, keep the fact you're all part robot! That's cool! Why should we tell Jaune that? Jaune wouldn't care! Jaune probably couldn't handle it, or would see it differently!"

Pyrrha just folded her arms and looked on at Jaune with soft eyes, letting him burn himself out before proceeding. When he stopped to take in some gulps of air, she made her first move.

"Ren doesn't have any augments. He's pure."

Jaune threw his arms up into the air, half turning away from Pyrrha as he growled, "Oh, well, excuse me. I'm guessing that's just being politically correct where you're from."

"Nora and I have augments that saved our lives."

"So what? What's your point?"

Pyrrha stepped up to Jaune, taking him by the shoulders and forcing him to turn fully again and look her in the eye.

"We couldn't tell you because of years of strife between the Old and New worlds! We couldn't tell you because now that you know, you are considered a criminal and traitor to Vale! Do you know how hypocritical it sounds that you have nightmares about being sent home when others are dreaming about being the cause for all your friends' deaths and being forced to fight your own comrades just because you're different! Just because you were a pathetic child who should've died instead of killing off the people she cares about!"

Pyrrha's voice trembled and cracked as her rant went on. Tears were beginning to stream down her face, and her lip was trembling. Jaune's eyes had widened; shocked to see the invincible Pyrrha like this.

His partner then went close, hugging Jaune tightly and burying her face into his shoulder. Sobs became her, and her voice came out muffled through his jacket.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I was the one who insisted on telling the secret! I thought you all should know! Something happened to Weiss, and we all agreed the best thing we could do was tell you all the truth! I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! If anyone finds out… then… then…"

Her speech just degenerated into soft sobs and slight hiccups.

Jaune for a moment stood still and wondered if this had all been a dream. Though he did catch up to reality and closed his arms around Pyrrha, hugging her tightly.

He would've never thought he'd be hugging his partner of all girls, but that fact didn't matter at all in his mind. The anger had long since left and was being replaced with guilt. Pyrrha at that moment wasn't some girl to woo, not the best fighter he'd ever known, not some devious cyborg, and certainly not his partner right then. Pyrrha was his best friend in all of Remnant, that he had hurt badly, and never even considered what she was thinking.

After some time of the two's embrace, Pyrrha had calmed down with only the occasional hiccup or sniffle. Yet she didn't break off. The two just stood there, enjoying the early morning breeze.

"Hey," Jaune whispered. "Why don't we go take a walk for a bit?"

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

"The charges are set, and everyone is in position. Ready on your orders."

"Do it."

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

The four teens awoke to violent shaking, a bright flash, and the horrific sounds of sirens in the distance. The shaking was so bad, Yang and Blake's book towers nearly toppled; While Ruby's hanging bed had one of its ropes undone, causing her to fall to the floor with a loud thump and an _ow_!

"Would someone turn off the alarm?" Yang said in a post-sleep haze.

"That's not the alarm!" Blake said, having jumped to her feet and now kneeling to help their leader- who was rubbing a visible bump on her head.

"What was that? An earthquake?" Weiss said, also now on her feet and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She kept rubbing at them, thinking something was in them, only to remember she could see in the dark again.

Using her augments, Weiss analysed Ruby to see her bump was nothing serious. However, she had also included Blake in her scan by accident and found her heart racing and slight haemorrhaging in her Faunus ears.

"Blake, your ears… Are they-" She started, coming closer.

Blake stood up with Ruby, and they were all joined by a nearly asleep again Yang.

"They're fine. They do that sometimes with loud noises. That's why I usually wear those special earplugs."

Blake rushed over to the window, followed by everyone else. As the sirens blared out, an orange glow could be seen invading the sky. Now everyone was now fully awake. And terrified.

"Is that a fire!?" Yang exclaimed, wide-eyed.

"I, I can't see! What happened?" Ruby said.

"No...No, no, no no!" Blake half whispered. Her mind instantly jumped to a suspect; no matter how unlikely and impractical it really is.

Weiss meanwhile backed away from the window. Yesterday's events were coming back in force. Was that all real? Her father had said…

_No!_ She denied in her head. _I… I didn't… I couldn't have just… He's lying!_

Weiss sprinted over to her bed and found her scroll. She then ran over to their room's work desk and pulled out the emergency pocket knife that came with the room. From there she went back to her bed and sat on the edge with both scroll and knife in hand. All the while her teammates were staring in confusion.

"Weiss, what are you doing?" Ruby's voiced trembled. She didn't understand anything anymore.

"I'm finding out what happened. You, however, might want to look away for this." She turned her now bright blue and golden yellow eyes to both Blake and Yang as she said, "I need one of you to grab my hand mirror and help me."

Both girls exchanged a worried glance, though Weiss didn't have time for psychic debates.

"We need to hurry! Do it now or I'm doing it myself!"

Blake volunteered. Yang stood back and held her sister's hand for both her comfort, and her own.

Weiss opened up the pocket knife and powered up her scroll. She logged into the student access for Beacon, then sat the personal device on her lap. When Blake returned with a mirror, the heiress turned her back to the left to let Blake sit down next to her.

"What are you going to do?" Blake asked while Weiss started feeling around her head and through her long, down hair.

"When they were processing me for Vale, they covered the external part of my Neural Hub so I couldn't jack-in to anything. And I need it."

The heiress felt around her head until she found a place by her right ear, up and back some, and under her hair that felt unnaturally tough. She then picked up the knife and raised it around the area, trying to use her augments and the mirror Blake was holding up to make this a quick and accurate as possible. This was going to hurt, but it could easily go south if her hand wasn't steady.

"Weiss, don't!" Ruby pleaded.

"Be quiet!" She hissed harshly at her partner.

Weiss took in two sharp breaths, then in one quick motion, plunged the small blade into the edge of the rough synthetic skin. It made a gross wet sound, and had spurted a bit of blood onto the bed- though it didn't bleed much more than that, and what little remained was in spots in her white hair and some drips down the side of her face. The pain at first was sharp, and made Weiss release a small yelp. Though she couldn't afford to stop. The sirens were getting more numerous, and there were more sounds of some explosions going off.

With the blade under the manmade scab, Weiss used the blade to tear around the outline. Once she had done the best she could through her hair, she used the blade to start prying it off. Some more, smaller spurts of blood came out and dripped and dotted down into her hair and even her face, but she proceeded. The pain was dull, like ribbing off a real scab or a bandage. Once it was starting to crumble and come off, Weiss removed the blade and threw it to the ground. She started using her hands to pick off the crumbling pieces of the cover, revealing a slightly bloody metal device.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Yang said. She was starting to turn a shade of green, and Ruby was buried into her sister via hug; not wanting to see any of it.

"There," Weiss announced. Most of the scab bits were on her bed and the floor, but cleanliness wasn't one of the teen's priorities at that moment. Blake put down the mirror and stood up to look down at the scroll, and Yang joined them. Ruby didn't want to turn in their direction. She instead fast walked to the drawers for clothes.

Weiss reached up to the odd device on her head, extracting an extending cord and plugging it into what was normally the charging jack on the scroll. The screen went black, then changed into a golden-orange background with code streaming upward. A second later, the code disappeared and the Schnee family emblem appeared.

Weiss's eyes stared deep, near trance-like, into the scroll. Her eyes were now fully golden and glowed brightly. Her irises were spinning, and her pupils grew and shrank periodically. Something was happening in the scroll, something the others couldn't make heads or tails of. Data was flying, and swimming around in it was Weiss's emblem.

"Got it!" Weiss exclaimed excitedly, nearly forgetting about the circumstances. It felt so good to hack again. "Beacon security is child's play."

The screen changed into several hundred different emergency camera feeds. Weiss enlarged and rapidly looked through them all until she found what she was looking for. It was at a fair distance, but it was clear what the image presented.

"Oh my god."

"That… That can't be White Fang."

_Father wasn't lying…_ Weiss lamented silently. _What have I done?_

Where airships usually land, and in the courtyard, there was fire and pieces of ship thrown everywhere. Something destroyed all of the parked transport ships. Something had attacked Beacon.

"Guys!"

The others looked to a now fully dressed Ruby- Weiss unplugging herself from her personal device.

The young teen held up her scroll and pressed play on the message she had gotten from none other than Goodwitch herself.

"All students and visitors, this is a code red emergency! You are to follow your instructions and proceed to the specified safe locations. This is not a drill! I repeat, not a drill! Proceed as quickly as you are able."

"What!? They're sending us to hide? No way! We need to do something!" Yang said.

"We don't know what's going on out there, it could be war for all we know!" Blake countered.

Weiss didn't add to the conversation. Her head lowered back to her scroll. Guilt was starting to drown her.

"Hey, enough!" Ruby ordered.

Everyone again looked back to Ruby, surprised how assertive their leader sounded.

"We need to do what we're told. Blake's right, it could be anything. We'll do what we can later. For now, we need to go. Get dressed!"

Silence fell between the group before the three older girls followed their leader's lead. Everyone staying silent as they dressed speedily. When they went from the commons into the hall, several students were funnelling down; surprisingly quiet. Some were dressed in normal attire, some in school uniform, and some still in sleep wear. Everyone looked confused, scared, or both.

Team RWBY filed in, staying close together as they became part of the student river.

Weiss had to turn off all the data analysing she was getting all around her. She had forgotten to turn that off, and was tired of analysing heart rates and personality types and such. She felt horrible. This was like some kind of nightmare, right after yesterday's nightmare turned dream. What had happened to their normal school life of stopping criminals and food fights?

"Hey," Ruby whispered, coming up to Weiss. "Are you okay?"

Something about that moment broke Weiss from her stupor. She had heard all kinds of silly or caring statements from Ruby in the past. But something was different about now. This time, it didn't want to make Weiss roll her eyes or feel indifferent; she felt joy and relief.

"Oh! Here. You might need these." Ruby passed some wet wipes and some hair elastics.

"Huh?"

"Wipe the blood off, and cover that thing. I don't want you to get in trouble."

"Oh." Weiss did just that. Thankfully no one was paying attention. Or if they were, no one said anything. She wiped away the external part of her Neural Hub, then set up her characteristic off centred ponytail on top of the device, covering it.

"So that's why you have it like that," Ruby smiled.

Weiss couldn't help but smile too.

"Until I came to Vale, I always decorated my hair on the other side. But I've come to grow accustomed to it now."

Both paused as they followed behind Blake and Yang through the twists and turns and stairs of the dorms in this river. But Weiss needed to know something.

"Still think I'm still me?"

"...Of course, Weiss. I mean, that was scary and gross, but nothing's still changed."

That feeling of acceptance and happiness returned partially to Weiss, though she still felt overwhelmed by guilt. She had to tell them. She's the reason for this.

"Ruby-" She started.

"It's okay. Really. Though if all your upgrades are like that… maybe just tell instead of show."

"But-" Weiss tried again.

"Hey, look! Nora and Ren! Come on, let's catch up with them."

Ruby moved up, motioning Yang and Blake to come too. Weiss hanged back for a moment, before joining her friends for the moment.

They were going to hate her for this.

* * *

"Hey, Ren?"

"Yes, Nora?"

"Are we under attack?"

"I don't know Nora."

"...Who's attacking?"

"I don't know Nora."

"...Should I have changed outta my PJs?"

"Probably Nora."

"...Where's Jaune and Pyrrha?"

"I don't know Nora."

"..."

"..."

"Are you scared Ren?"

"...I don't know Nora."

"Nora! Ren!"

The two teens turned around to see Ruby forcing her way through the crowd, the rest of her team close behind.

"I'm so glad you two are alright. But, where's Jaune and Pyrrha?" The caped girl asked.

"We don't know!" Nora spoke a little too loudly, gaining brief attention from others in the student body. "They were there when we went to sleep, and when we woke up they were gone… like ghosts… or ninjas… oh! Or ghost ninjas!"

A concerned frown crossed Ruby's face. "I hope they didn't get caught out there."

"Speaking of which, what _is_ going on out there?" Ren asked.

"Not a clue, but it might be White Fang," Yang answered.

"The White Fang?" Ren said in disbelief.

"No, it isn't," Blake said, drawing all eyes to her. "Even they wouldn't do anything like this."

"Uh, they already have. They were there at the breach, remember?" Yang reminded.

"It's not White Fang." This time, it was Weiss who spoke, keeping her head down.

"What makes you say that?" Ruby asked; everyone's eyes on Weiss.

Weiss sighed, it was time to own up.

"When I left the library yesterday, it was to talk to my father. He had told me to lay low. That forces of some kind will tear our school apart. I came back to warn you but… with everything else I… forgot.

"You... You _forgot?!_" Blake exclaimed. "Weiss, Beacon is under attack. Jaune and Pyrrha are missing and people could be dying out there, and you just forgot?!"

"Look I'm… I'm sorry." Weiss said before pushing out and hurrying away from the group.

"Wait, where are you going!" Ruby called after her.

"I'm going to put this right," Weiss shouted back, not turning back as she forced her way through the crowd.

"Come on, we need to go after her," Ruby said to Blake and Yang as she began to force her way after Weiss.

The others shared a look before Yang and Blake rushed after her, leaving Nora and Ren behind as the crowd flowed around them.

"…"

"…"

"Nora?"

"Yes, Ren?"

"Change out your PJs. We're going to find Jaune and Pyrrha."

"Alrighty!"

The two then faded out the crowd back to their room.

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

Ozpin sat alone in his office at the top of Beacon tower. He had just finished organizing a response to this unexpected attack. At the moment, he stood looking out the window. He saw the flames perfectly from where he was. It wasn't a coincidence. It was a message.

_You're not safe in your tower._ That's what the message said. _We can get you._

Ozpin heard the message loud and clear. But the threat didn't bother him at all. He had received many during his time.

No. What bothered him was how he was threatened. This was his school. His people were in the firing line. This was his realm and it was burning before him. This was personal to the core.

The screen of his computer suddenly came alive by its own will through a secure link independent of the CCT. On it was the silhouette of a man he spoke to a mere two weeks earlier. His voice had that usual distortion to it, making his voice sound slightly higher pitch.

_"You better have a good reason for calling me at this hour."_ The man spoke harshly, yet with authority.

"Of course," Ozpin said turning his chair to the monitor, his voice calm and respectful. "I'd just thought I'd inform you that we are under attack. Or can you already see the smoke from Vale?"

The man let out a long drawn sigh. _"This is just another recent example of how you aren't suited for your current task. Your predecessor liked you. They said you knew how to keep control of any situation. However, I personally find your abilities… underwhelming."_

"I assure you that the matter will be dealt with given time. But there will be immediate consequences for what happens here tonight. While not long term, they-"

_"They are something that I will have to deal with due to your lack of willingness to strike at the root of the problem."_ The man finished, redirecting the blame.

"If we rush in head first, we risk losing our hold." Ozpin tried to reason with his boss.

_"And if we follow your plan we lose our very lives!"_ The man snapped back. _"You are aware that one of your colleagues has asked for your resignation?"_

Ozpin let slip a small grunt of annoyance, but quickly regained composure. "That same colleague wants to enforce martial law wherever he goes. I wouldn't put much faith in his judgement. Really you'd think he's out to take the world by storm- same Mantle, different name."

_"And yet, you are the one making the mistakes. Not him."_

"I suppose that can only be true, in a sense. You can't blame James for anything, so you blame me. He's as much in the dark, if not more, than any normal person. So it's hard to blame a man that acts not even on no information, but lies. Is that not true?"

Another figure appeared on the screen, this one much more feminine.

_"What seems to be the problem?"_ She spoke in a voice that was easily recognized, but hard to place- like it was heard every day but no one paid attention to who was speaking.

_"The problem is that you're interrupting a private conversation."_ The man instantly turned on her.

"She's here at my request," Ozpin jumped to the woman's aid. "At the end of the day, she is the one who has to keep the public calm after this is finished. Sad we only get to talk under these circumstances."

The woman ignored the exchange. _"I'll ask again. What is the problem?"_

"We are under attack," Ozpin said.

_"Do you know who by?"_ She asked.

"New World. No room for doubt."

That last comment gave the others pause.

_"Damn it!"_ The man suddenly snapped. _"This just proves that you have no control! How much longer must this go on? How many more people must die because of your incompetence? How…" _The man suddenly burst into a coughing fit.

_"You should go and get some rest. It's too early for you. And I can handle it fine."_ Ozpin calmly said.

The coughing died down and the man took a few deep breaths before responding. His tone now tired._ "And let you run us all into the ground?"_

"We can handle the situation from here. I simply wished to inform you so you were prepared should the need arise. It's what one does when you're part of a team, after all."

The man hesitated before muttering something under his breath. He then addressed Ozpin. _"You better handle it. Or I will replace you with someone who will."_

The man then cut the connection. With their leader gone, Ozpin and the woman were free to talk about… unsettling matters.

_"He's beginning to wither."_ The woman stated bluntly.

"Time does that to you. He knows what's coming, and it frightens him. It's understandable." Ozpin felt this was expected, both from their leader and the woman he was now speaking to.

_"So he decides to push away those closest to him?"_ The woman snapped.

"Can you blame him? The others are becoming vultures looking to pick at his corpse before he's even dead." Ozpin knew that he would be doing the same in his boss' shoes. Therefore, he saw no reason to be angry. Often he was glad to have different friends and allies that weren't just _Them_.

_"And some of those very same vultures are the ones he trusts," _The woman countered. _"We have to do something."_

"There's nothing we can do. Not without alerting them. All we can do is serve him and hope we stay close enough to keep him shielded. One false move, and this old brotherhood will tear itself apart." Ozpin was always going to be cautious here. Not because he was afraid, but because it was a high stake game they were playing.

_"That's already happening! They're whispering in his ears! The longer we wait, the more he'll suspect us of being the traitors! Don't you know there's a rumor going around of a possible coup? A lot of names are being thrown around, and one them is yours! And the recent events on your doorstep haven't helped either!"_ The woman was quickly beginning to sound angry.

"All very convenient, don't you think?" Ozpin was quite the opposite, still keeping his calm demeanor.

_"Wait, are you saying that they are involved too?"_ The woman was surprised, but it was hard to tell past the urgency in her voice.

"Not for certain," Ozpin admitted. "But I wouldn't be surprised."

_"You said it is… the new competition?"_ The woman didn't exactly know what to call them. Upstarts? Rebels? It didn't matter. They simply… were. They were alike in that respect.

"No, I said they were New World. That toy maker doesn't have the resources for this. And even if he is involved, someone else is pulling the strings." Ozpin felt that all external threats paled compared to the internal one. He just needed to convince her of the same.

_"He didn't have the resources ten years ago either. He had one man."_ The woman stated factually.

"That was simply the right place at the right time. X and the toy maker were neither the first or last to have fortune smile on them as such." Ozpin dismissed. He had seen such fortune countless times in the past. It happened more than his people cared to admit.

The woman sighed. _"If someone else is involved, it might be another external threat we can't see."_

"Like who?" Ozpin questioned, leaning back in his chair.

_"Like the Atlas forces outside your window every day. In a few short weeks, they have gained security for the Vytal festival. It is, as you say, all very convenient."_ The woman's voice held faint traces of doubt, almost like she was trying to convince herself that their supposed allies wouldn't go that far.

"I have known James for many years. And as I discussed before you arrived, he's far too rash and impulsive to see what's really going on, never mind knowing how to handle it. But, people like that have their uses. If he is anything, he is a puppet to something. For now, he will protect us during the festival; even if he- and we- don't really understand how or why that came to be. He is also a personal friend that I trust greatly, no matter what." Ozpin reassured the woman. Despite James' recent… actions; Ozpin knew he had a good heart, and simply sought to follow his own beliefs.

The silence that followed was unbearable. Not because of the quiet center in the chaos of battle and panic around, but because of what it meant. Ozpin could feel himself being analysed by the invisible gaze of the silhouette on the screen in front of him. All he could do was gaze back, holding his own until it was over.

_"So be it then,"_ The woman eventually said. _"We will watch and prepare. Speaking of which, I'll need to get ready to calm the public in the morning. Get yourself ready. The Grimm won't be far behind. Farewell."_

With that, the connection ended and Ozpin swung his chair back to the window, once again focusing on the flames raging below. This was his realm and it was burning before him. But he and his people would rise from the ashes even stronger, like they had done so many times before.

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

Moments before the explosion, Pyrrha and Jaune were walking side by side in the breezy morning. They had walked for several minutes before stopping at one of Beacon's mini gardens to rest for a moment. Both of them sat awkwardly in silence, watching the nearby pond and tiny waterfall. Something in the in the air had changed, and now there was no going back. And neither one of them could tell if the arguing or whatever this was was worse.

"So uh…" Jaune started; leaning forward and unable to make up his mind whether he wanted to fold his hands or move one through his hair. "What kind of upgrades do you have?"

Pyrrha shrugged, remaining stiff and continuing to sit straight. As she spoke, she went back and forth between looking at the scenery and the pathway; never at Jaune.

"Nothing of significance. Certainly nothing as complex as what Weiss has in her possession. She probably has similar model eyes and a Neural Hub, though it may be an executive model. They both probably have much more functionality too, and less delay. Oh, and I didn't mention it earlier, but I'm certain she doesn't have a small prosthetic heel like I have. It doesn't do anything special, and it's a long story as to how I got that, but essentially-"

"Pyrrha," Jaune stopped the girl's rambling. "I asked about you, not Weiss."

"Oh. Right. Sorry." The gladiator could feel her cheeks burning, and worried that they could be as red as her hair. She took a deep breath, and tried again with a clearer, slower, pace.

"Well, my heart keeps oxygen flowing at a decent pace. And it can create bursts of adrenaline if I needed it; though that function was disabled and just set to normal settings. Nothing more complex than that. My original augment was more of simple attachment and just helped my heart function normally. When being upgraded, I had the choice whether to dispose of it and replace the whole thing with a synthetic one or to simply stick with the enhancement. I declined, as it would be a lengthy recovery time and more medicine to take, and it would be a hefty toll on my aura. And… I don't know how to describe it. Even if it's weak, my heart is still a part of me. And I couldn't just give that up."

"You need to take medicine?"

"Not anymore. It's better now than it used to be some years ago. I didn't have to take medicine after a new formula came out. After a few weeks of medication, my augments would never be rejected by my body."

Jaune finally looked over, and the two finally made eye contact. This time, it didn't seem embarrassing. It was starting to feel like normal again. Following this, the boy pressed onward with conversation.

"...So, augments need aura?"

Pyrrha nodded.

"Augments run on the body's own energy. That, in turn, manifests in aura. The more augments you have, and the more frequently they need energy, the more aura they need. This can have a nasty effect on the protectiveness and the semblance of one's aura. If you were like Weiss and I, it would be a handicap to overcome, but not impossible to have a balance. But if someone augments themselves to a heavy degree, their aura can fade away. The energy is still there, but more or less it's just gone and can never return. Many purists believe that when one reaches that point, they've sold their soul to become living weapons. And in some cases, I find that's completely true."

A moment of that silence returned with that somber thought, and both teens looked away to the garden again. It didn't last however as Pyrrha looked back at Jaune and smiled,

"No more force field."

Jaune's brows bunched together in confusion, then quickly his eyes widen in recognition. And both the teens began laughing at the memories.

"I forgot about that," Jaune said, wiping away a tiny tear that had formed in the chuckle.

His eyes then widen again as a thought popped into his head. Jaune got to his feet, and offered a hand to Pyrrha as he asked,

"So does that mean, if you didn't need or have any of those robot parts, you'd have an even stronger semblance?"

Pyrrha's eyes went upward in a brief thought before she grabbed Jaune's hand.

"I'd never thought about it that way before. Perhaps. Though if I wanted to test that, I'd have to go blind and essentially go into cardiac arrest. Not ideal circumstances."

Both of them went on walking again, following the path that would eventually lead to the main courtyard of Beacon. Neither had realized they were still holding hands for some minutes; Though when they did, they just went on with it. It didn't feel awkward. Frankly, it was nice for both teens to feel like best friends again.

As they entered the courtyard, the two could see Beacon's iconic statue coming into view. Two hunters, side by side, standing victorious over the Grimm. Unknown to Jaune however, Pyrrha had seen plenty of variations of this statue. When she had more free access to the online network, she had seen this statue modified in both Mistral and Atlas. Some variations had one or both of the hunters augmented. And some had even been replaced with statues of a famous New World hero that had stopped some corporation from killing thousands of augmented. Pyrrha couldn't quite remember how it went, however- she had only been seven at the time, and she's been away from home too long to remember those same anniversary specials on TV.

"So, Jaune? Are we… good?" Pyrrha asked nervously.

"Heh. Yeah. Of course we are." Jaune smiled.

Both of them stopped at the statue, finally freeing hands. Jaune took on a more serious tone and look as well, making his partner nervous again before she heard what he had to say.

"The thing is, this keeping things from each other… that's gotta stop. Both on our team and on Ruby's. We've seen again and again, it tears us all apart. And… I'm worried that one day, if we all keep it up, we're not all gonna be able to just fix it again. I want us all to be friends for a long time. Maybe forever, who knows. But one of these days, if we don't all try to be straightforward about things, we're gonna tear ourselves apart for good."

Pyrrha nodded. Then she just continued to stare at Jaune, with a small smile slowly evolving into a toothy grin from ear to ear. It made Jaune VERY uncomfortable to say the least.

"Uh, do I have something on my face?" He asked.

"No. But right now is one of those times that, I really do understand what Ozpin sees in you as a leader."

"You do? Wish I saw it."

Pyrrha playfully punched at her leader's shoulder as she rolled her eyes.

Maybe… Maybe now is the time. It's been such a nice night, er, morning. It's been so easy to talk. But, a lot has been dropped on him. Maybe now's not the best time. I could tell him another time. Maybe in a few weeks, when everything is sorted out, I'll tell him after practice. Just him, me, and the tower's light in the night sky. It'll be perfect!

Yes… Pyrrha thought. Everything's going to be just fine.

That's when the carriers exploded. Sending both Jaune and Pyrrha to the ground.

* * *

The explosion left both teen's ears ringing. Not helped was after they were beginning to get their bearings again, sirens blared out through Beacon. It also took some adjusting for the two's eyes as orange light came flushing in from the nearby air-docks.

"What…" Jaune wheezed, having been thrown against the statue. "Was that?"

Pyrrha looked on and saw, at least, three different transport cruisers blown to pieces. Parts big and small were raining down from the docks to even near the courtyard. One ship- slightly more intact- was sliding down the cliff, falling down into the edge of the emerald forest. While the others were now nothing but shrapnel.

The gladiator looked up, eyes widen, before bolting to her feet. She grabbed Jaune and forced him to move also.

"Move now!"

Both teens barely made it out in time as a large fireball exploded where they had been standing. The explosion still sent Jaune and Pyrrha spinning about into grass, though they were walking away with nothing more than more ringing ears.

Jaune was the first to his feet this time. He helped Pyrrha up, asking a few times between coughs through the smoke he kept shouting (either because he was having a hard time breathing, or he just couldn't hear himself),

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Can you walk?"

"I'm fine!" Pyrrha shouted, hoping he'd hear her and seeing if she could hear herself.

Jaune nodded, then started a motion to run back to Beacon. But Pyrrha stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"What if there were people there!? We have to help them!"

"Are you nuts! We need to go!"

Pyrrha's face scrunched and she let go of Jaune. She fumbled into her pocket for her scroll, and began typing in coordinates for her rocket-locker.

"Then go! But I'm helping whoever is in there!"

When her rocket-locker landed and opened, Pyrrha sprinted to it. She snatched Akoúo̱ out and set the shield aside for a moment. She also pulled out her spare top, greaves, cuisses, and bracer from the locker and set them out. With precision and speed only obtained by practice, she began strapping on her armour in their appropriate spots. And by the time Jaune had approached, Pyrrha had already drawn Miló, attached Akoúo̱ by the brace, and had shed the Beacon shirt to tie on her dual layered top. Jaune couldn't believe how fast she was at preparing, or how odd the hybrid between the "invincible" and the "normal" Pyrrha looked.

"Hey!" Jaune yelled, grabbing her attention before she could run off. The knight drew both his own sword and shield, and banged the two together for emphasis.

"Partners stick together. Even if one is nuts and the other a coward."

Pyrrha didn't smile. Though she nodded as she quickly said,

"You're not a coward. Now come on!"

Both teens then ran into the fiery chaos. Not knowing that they were being watched through a scope in the far off trees.

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

An explosion in the distance and a brief shaking in the ground told them the mission had begun.

"Let's move."

"Right behind you, boss."

Cronus and Atlas moved from their cover towards the outer walls of Beacon, fast and quiet. They then moved along, sticking to the shadows until they got to the base of Ozpin's tower. The sirens were just beginning to sound as they reached their objective, now forcing internal comms only.

Cronus had to give Ironwood credit. If he hadn't wormed his way to head of security, then getting to the tower would have been a lot tougher through dozens of soldiers.

_"Mnemosyne, report,"_ Cronus ordered in thought.

_"Prometheus' distraction is working. Zeus is in his office and you're clear for entry."_ Mnemosyne said.

The two Titans stood in front of the main door. A quick attempt at the console told them it was code locked during the nights.

_"So how're we doing this?"_ Atlas asked.

_"Hmm. Well, Prometheus would have me act professional and hack the console…"_ Cronus said pondering.

_"Yeah, he's boring like that_." Atlas pointed out. Cronus ignored him.

_"…But I don't think we have time for professional, and it'll be more fun for you this way."_

_"Boss, I don't care what the higher ups say about you, you know how to keep your team happy,"_ Atlas said with a smile.

_"Mnemosyne, can you hack the tower door alarms?"_ Cronus said.

_"Already done."_ Was the instant response.

_"Really?"_ Cronus said, surprised. _"It's like you knew what I was planning."_

_"I did know,"_ Mnemosyne exclaimed. _"I've been reading your internal chatter. And when was the last time you did a job properly anyway?"_

_"It was…"_ Cronus began.

_"Without Prometheus looking over your shoulder."_ Mnemosyne quickly added.

_"…Long before I got my own team."_

Cronus offered a quick nod to Atlas to give him the all clear. The giant placed his flamethrower in the hold on his belt before moving towards the door.

_"Besides,"_ The Titan continued on while keeping a lookout for evacuating students. _"As long as the mission is completed with minimal casualties, it's done 'properly'. Everything else just details."_

The lack of sparks and the sound of a door being ripped off its hinges and hitting the floor told him Atlas was through.

_"Got to go. Zeus is waiting. Keep me informed."_ Cronus finished, then muted himself and Atlas to Mnemosyne on that comm line so as not to be so easily eavesdropped.

The assassins proceeded into the building, making their way through a short maze of corridors towards a secondary emergency elevator. The main elevator should be shut off to prevent their target from a possible escape, and to make sure no one could easily intervene. The whole goal was to avoid any possible contact other than planned.

_"Heads up, three life signs in the hallway ahead."_ Mnemosyne's voiced warned.

So much for that...

Atlas and Cronus ducked into the side doorways of the hallway to get out of sight. True to Mnemosyne's word, three students passed by soon after. Two of them, a boy with grey hair and a girl with green hair, were quick to be on their way.

"But if it's not us, then what's going on?" The boy asked.

"Is any of this part of the plan?" The girl asked.

But the third one, a girl with black hair and fiery amber eyes, stopped and looked in the Titans' direction. She narrowed her eyes slightly before a small smirk came to her lips.

"All you two need to know is that this is a part of something greater. So don't worry, and just enjoy the panic for now." She said down the hall; clearing addressing the other two, but still giving the two men goosebumps. She then went after the others at a slower more relaxed pace.

The two soldiers moved from cover after their local radars gave the all clear. Both of them just stared off for several moments where the woman had just stood without speaking. Something was off about that one. Both of them could feel it. They also couldn't shake off her words.

_"Okay, that was weird,"_ Cronus said, finally coming back into reality and breaking the silence.

_"No kidding,"_ Atlas said. _"What were they even doing here?"_

_"The training area's nearby. They were probably there when the attack hit."_ Cronus said.

_"This early in the morning?"_ Atlas questioned.

_"My best guess."_ Cronus just shrugged. Another brief silence followed.

_"You think she saw us?"_

_"What do you mean us?"_ Cronus asked with a smile in his voice. _"If she saw anything, it was probably your fat ass sticking out of cover."_

_"I'll remember that the next time you need this fat ass to save yours… sir."_ Atlas said, pulling a cigar out from a case on his belt and placing it through the mouth of his helmet he opened.

_"Good point,"_ Cronus said, enjoying the banter that was easing the tense atmosphere. _"I might need something to absorb the bullets."_

Atlas rolled his eyes under his helmet.

_"I've changed my mind. Command was right. It is a miracle you've lasted this long." _Atlas then raised his finger to light the cigar

_"Woah!"_ Cronus reached out and stopped Atlas. _"Don't do that. You might trip the smoke alarms. They're not connected to the tower's network."_

_"I'm carrying a flamethrower."_ Atlas deadpanned, rolling his eyes again behind the mask.

_"And by the time you use it, it will be aimed at Zeus. I don't want to give him more warning then we have to."_ Cronus said.

_"You're the boss."_ Atlas put his cigar away, sighing and sounding pathetically sad.

The two continued their way to the elevator. When they arrived, Cronus immediately set to work hacking the console by jacking into it. Tearing down a door was one thing, but Atlas would probably rip out the entire elevator given the chance.

Suddenly he got a notice for a private comm line from Mnemosyne. Knowing that it must be serious, he accepted without another thought.

_"Sir, we might have a problem,"_ Mnemosyne said urgently; surreally sounding flustered.

_"Obviously,"_ Cronus rolled his eyes as he continued to work. _"What's wrong?"_

_"I think Coeus is a traitor,"_ Mnemosyne stated bluntly.

That caused Cronus to stumble and trigger the tracking system on the security. The system was now aware of him, and trying to stop him.

"Son of a Creep loving..." Cronus almost started chaining swears aloud; Though instead focused energy into now involving his hands to help his Neural. _"What makes you say that?"_

_"He's gone dark,"_ Mnemosyne said flatly.

_"That's not unusual for him. He's always had his reasons and they've always been good ones."_ Cronus reasoned.

_"Well, I thought of that too. But I activated his emergency tracker just in case. He's heading to the CCT, which just so happens to be the next nearest communication line to the Atlas fleet we sent away. He could boost the CCT signal to send a distress call."_ Mnemosyne countered.

Cronus breathed a sigh of relief as he finished hacking the console and the elevator opened. Not an alarm to be heard.

"None of that means Coeus is a traitor. He may be taking initiative and eliminating that rogue element." Cronus said aloud by accident.

"Coeus is a what now?" Atlas' head spun round fast from the surprise of traitor talk.

Cronus paused for a moment, weighing the positives and negatives of letting this traitor nonsense stir in any more of his team.

_"Hold on. I'm patching Atlas in."_ He said.

After another brief pause, the conversation continued.

_"I'm in. What's all this about Coeus being a traitor?"_ Atlas demanded.

_"Nothin_g." Cronus dismissed. _"Mnemosyne's just paranoid."_

_"You remember how we've had a lot of security breaches recently?" _Mnemosyne said, ignoring her boss.

_"What of it?"_ Atlas asked.

_"The first one started around the same time Coeus joined the team."_ Mnemosyne stated.

_"Coincidence."_ Cronus dismissed.

_"So I reasoned too. But I had to be sure, just in case someone else noticed who's a lot more jumpy with conclusions. And after tracking him using the tracer in his Neural, I've found that he was in the vicinity of every. Single. Breach. Honestly, I didn't want to believe it. But especially with this most recent action, how many coincidences does it take to be something more?"_

Mnemosyne let the words hang for a while.

"That backstabbing son of a bitch!" Atlas shouted aloud.

"Keep your voice down!" Cronus ordered in a hushed whisper, then went back to comms. _"We don't know that for sure."_

_"I know you don't want to admit it, sir. And even with as cynical as I know I can get, I truly don't want to think he'd do this. But it needs checking out."_ Mnemosyne nearly... Pleaded? That was a first.

Cronus put a first to his helmeted forehead to think. And after some moments with that, he gave up and sighed.

_"Fine. I'll send Atlas. And afterwords, we need to talk about this other 'tracer' you've got on all of us. Over and out."_ He then closed the channel.

"Boss, you can't beat Zeus alone," Atlas said.

"We can't send anyone from Prometheus' team unless we draw attention, and Mnemosyne is busy monitoring the window. If this is going to be investigated, it has to be you." Cronus asserted. "Besides, I don't want the others to know unless we're certain."

"But boss…" Atlas began.

"No buts. I am your leader and I'm ordering you to go to the CCT." Cronus' said even more firmly.

"I… Understood boss." Atlas reluctantly obeyed.

"Zeus isn't the first Huntsman I've faced and I have no intention for him to be the last," Cronus said placing a hand on Atlas' shoulder.

"Officio et honore"

"Officio et honore." Atlas echoed, grabbing Cronus' own shoulder.

"Don't sound so uneasy. Besides…" Cronus said as he unclasped his comrade and friend and entered the elevator. "…What can one old man do?"

"You're way older than he is!" Atlas shouted after him.

Cronus recoiled, placing a hand over his heart in mock pain.

"Don't insult me." He said dramatically as the doors closed.

As the elevator rose, the old soldier sighed. He really wasn't sure he could take Zeus alone, but he had no choice.

A traitor was a far bigger threat.

* * *

WWWWWWWW

* * *

Blake rushed down the halls after Yang and Ruby in search of Weiss. Had she been too harsh? She didn't want Weiss to do anything stupid. What's done is done. Rushing off now wouldn't change anything. She just didn't want Weiss to make the same mistake again.

She needed to talk to Weiss. She didn't regret what she said, but she was having second thoughts about how she said it. All the stories she heard… had they clouded her judgement? Had she begun to see Weiss as a machine and not a person? Even if mad, she never would have reacted so strongly towards her. If so, it would have to be something she worked on. She promised to give Weiss a chance, and she refused to let her get herself killed because she felt she had something to prove.

Blake mentally scoffed. Not long ago it was her team trying to hold her back for her wellbeing. Not long ago it was her who was afraid when her secret was revealed. Now she was the one chasing a teammate whose secret had been revealed, who was running off into the first enemy they saw because they didn't know what to do. Oh, how things had changed in one short day.

The three approached the locker room just as Weiss came out in full battle gear. The trio stopped in front of her.

"Weiss, what are you doing?" Ruby asked when she was close enough.

"What does it look like?" Weiss sounded impatient. "I'm going to put this right."

"There's nothing we can do. We need to take shelter and let the professionals deal with this." Blake tried to reason.

"That's hypocritical coming from you." Weiss' response was harsh and blunt.

"That was different and you know it," Blake retorted. "Whoever is attacking did so knowing professional Hunters would be here. We might just get in the way and make things worse."

"I've already made things worse by forgetting to tell them," Weiss sighed. "You run if you want. I can't turn my back on this."

She then pushed past the three and began to walk away. A suicide march.

"Weiss, wait!" Ruby shouted after her.

"I'm not coming back Ruby."

"No, I know… but we can at least go with you."

Weiss turned and looked into Ruby's pleading eyes.

"Please." The young teen begged.

After a long silence, Weiss spoke, "You have five minutes."

Without wasting time, Ruby grabbed both Blake and Yang and dragged them inside the locker room. Once inside, Ruby rushed straight for her locker to get her battle gear. But Blake and Yang stayed by the door.

"Why are we doing this?" Blake asked.

"We're doing this for Weiss." Was Ruby's simple answer.

"But I'm telling you, we can't handle this. I mean… they're attacking Beacon, one of the finest academies in the world. They wouldn't do that if they weren't prepared." Blake was beginning to get desperate. Why couldn't her team see just how far out of their depth they were?

"So we're supposed to just hide? If we did that with all problems like that, we wouldn't have been at Mt. Glenn. We all agreed to fight together. We weren't going to just stand by and wait, remember?" Ruby began to place ammo clips all over herself so she had plenty of bullets to spare.

"That's exactly my point! I've been thinking a lot after the breach. And even if we threw a wrench into Torchwick and the White Fang's plans, we didn't really change anything…"

"NO!" Ruby spun around to face Blake. "We did more than throw a wrench. We got there before they were ready, and they had to attack early. Who knows how many more people would have died if we didn't stop them!"

Blake narrowed her eyes at Ruby, she was beginning to see something in the young girl. Something was changing. "Is that what you tell yourself to sleep at night? That you saved lives and didn't cost them? Do you even think about those White Fang we knocked around in the tunnels, or the first people that were around when the Grimm crawled out?"

Ruby recoiled like she had been struck, a look of shock on her face. She then let out a frustrated growl before turning back to her locker.

"Watch yourself, Blake," Yang warned, her eyes briefly flashing red.

"I'm… sorry," She wasn't really (and was beginning to wonder if something was changing inside herself too), but they had too big of a problem to start a squabble among themselves. "But it doesn't change the fact that this time we're the ones taken by surprise."

"Then we better hurry up and get un-surprised." Ruby snapped, closed her locker, and began to leave.

Yang blocked the door with her arm to stop her sister. Ruby didn't even flinch or stop looking ahead.

"You're really going to do this, aren't you?" Yang said firmly with a hint of worry.

"Yup." She said without hesitating or even looking at her sister.

"With or without us?"

"Yup."

Silence endured for a heartbeat.

"...Alright then." Yang coincided, lowering her arm and walked to her own locker.

"You're going too?" Blake asked mildly surprised.

"Of course. I have to protect my sister." Was her only reply.

This was bad. Now the entire team was going to rush of, possibly to their deaths (Another factor she constantly thought about after having brought them into her war against Torchwick). She still thought this was stupid, but… could she abandon her team… again? Images of a train were in her mind. On one cart she stood, severing the others. Across from her was her partner, pain and surprise visible even through his mask.

No. She couldn't live that again. With a sigh, she headed to her own locker.

"I knew you'd come around little kitty," Yang said with a soft smile.

The two prepared in silence and met the others outside waiting.

"Finally. Come on we need to go." Weiss said as she started to head off.

The four teens sprinted their way out of the student housing and off deeper into campus. Weiss was leading them forward, yet to everyone's surprise she wasn't heading towards the bright fire lights and the sounds of fighting, she was leading them towards the main buildings of Beacon.

"Uh, where are we going? The fighting is that way." Yang asked huffing.

"If this is an attack on Beacon, then they're probably aiming for the headmaster. We need to go to his-" Weiss braked, catching everyone off guard as she readied her weapon.

Blake was the first to follow suit because she also heard the loud footsteps heading their way. A moment later, a giant of a man in jet black armor rounded the nearby building's corner. His helmet had the image of a face on it, and the round fuel tank for the flamethrower in his hand looked like the world of Remnant on his back. But what terrified the others the most was the sight of the abnormally large cybernetic arms the man had, with hands large enough to hold a person's head in and crush it like a grape.

Seeing the girls, the man stopped before them.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" His voice was deep, and muffled by his helmet and some sort of light distortion. "Four little girlies separated from the main group? Deliberately no less. Ya'll wanting to play the big heroines, eh? Hoping to drive back the bad invaders?"

He threw his head back as much as he could and faked a good laugh before addressing the teens again.

"Oh that's just precious. Well fortunately for you, my orders say I'm on the way out anyway. Go ahead and make a big story about how you drove me off. I'm sure you'll get some extra credit or something and get a nice little pat on the back… or head in your case shorty." He pointed to Ruby with the last words.

"Now if you'll excuse, the grown up has something to- WHOA!."

The soldier was interrupted by Weiss dashing forward trying to stab at his throat. He managed to deflect the blow and tried swinging back wildly. Weiss easily dodged and re-joined the team. Nerves were fading and focus was taking hold between them.

"That wasn't very nice snowflake. Look, I don't have the time or, to be honest, the will to hurt you right now. So move and I'll pretend that didn't happen."

Team RWBY stood on guard. This was just another foe like the hundreds they've beaten together by now. It was go time.

"So be it then."

The soldier sent a jet of flame hurling towards the group.

* * *

**WWWWWWWW**

* * *

**A/N: Hello everyone who is reading this (because let's be honest, no one cares about the A/N). It's been a while.**

**Firstly this story is not dead. But things have changed. FirestarLeon has announced that he is retiring from FanFiction. This chapter was the last work between the two of us. Now, I intend to continue the story if even one person says that they would like to see it continue. Also, as far as I'm concerned it is still a collaboration so if FirestarLeon just wanted to barge back in then they could because this is still their story too. Sadly though, I feel it fair to warn you that the writing quality might (will) go down since FirestarLeon was by far the better writer. But I will do my best to serve. I'll also still be sending chapters to FirestarLeon to post on their copy of the story if anyone is just watching their one. You hear that FirestarLeon? I'm not doing this to cram it down your throat, but if you are reading it then go for it.**

**Secondly, not much action this chapter but it has set up for a lot in the next. "Cronus" vs. "Zeus". RWBY vs. "Atlas". Jaune and Pyrrah caught in the crosshairs.**

**Thirdly, the next chapter was basically planned by me and FirestarLeon so I will do that at least, let you decide if it's worth continuing or if I should just hang it up.**

**Ok, that's the lot. See you next time!**


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